Esaias van de Velde

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Esaias van de Velde
horses in a field before a town, probably the horse fair at valkenburgh outside the hague
Black chalk; brown ink framing lines on three sides (over black chalk at the bottom), a later black ink framing line at the top;
signed and dated 'E.V. Velde 1628'

Provenance

Bears the mark formerly associated with Crozat and now suggested to be Joseph Gulston (L.474);
Anonymous sale; London, Christie's, 11 April 1978, lot 89, to Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. B-58);
his sale, London, Christie's, 11 April 2002, lot 651

Exhibited

Notre Dame, Indiana, The Snite Museum of Art, Selections of XVII and XVIII Century Dutch Art from the Collection of Dr A.C.R. Dreesmann, 1982, no. 26

Literature

G.S. Keyes, Esaias van den Velde 1587-1630, Doornspijk 1984, cat. no. D135, pl. 243

Catalogue Note

George Keyes has suggested that this may be a companion-piece to a drawing of the same date and similar dimensions at Heino, Kasteel 'Het Nijenhuis', Stichting Hannema-De Stuers (Keyes, op. cit., cat. D107, pl. 241). Although horses frequently appear in Esaias' drawings, they are usually being ridden by soldiers or are pulling carts, and the subject of the present drawing is very unusual for the artist. Keyes has made the interesting suggestion, based both on the subject and on the background topography, that the drawing may in fact relate to the annual horse fair at Valkenburg. This was the subject of the famous 1618 painting by Adriaen van de Venne (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), which may well in turn have inspired Esaias' own, equally celebrated canvas, painted in 1625 and now in the Six Collection (Keyes, op. cit., cat. no. 16, pl. 129).