- 23
Attributed to Frans Snyders Antwerp 1579 - 1657
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Description
- Frans Snyders
- recto: study of the head and shoulders of a greyhound, turned to the left;verso: study of the entrance to a grotto, with pillars to the right
bears an old attribution in brown ink on mount: Cornelis Saftleven
black chalk heightened with white chalk, on faded blue paper (recto and verso), within black chalk framing lines (recto)
Catalogue Note
This superb study of the head of a greyhound has a traditional attribution to Cornelis Saftleven, but although that artist did make a small number of large-scale animal studies like this, the elegance and movement both of the handling and of the dog's pose, and also the use of blue paper, suggest that the drawing is more likely to originate from the orbit of Rubens than from Holland. Snyders was the artist from this circle who most frequently used hounds of this type, in this sort of pose, in his paintings, so although the technique is somewhat more refined than is usually the case in his drawings, an attribution to Snyders seems the most convincing.