Cornelis van Poelenburch

Private collection, Amsterdam;
with Bob P. Haboldt, Paris/New York (Dessins anciens des Ecoles du Nord, Françaises et Italiennes, 1990-91, no. 25), from whom bought by the present owner

Unframed. Window mounted. As can be seen in the catalogue illustration, the sheet appears to have been foxed, recto and verso (slightly more perceptible on the verso). Some dirt along the top and bottom margins and a light grey stain at the upper right corner. All margins appear somewhat thinned, from where the drawing was detached from an old mount. Overall the condition is fine. The colours are slightly warmer than the catalogue illustration.
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This important sheet combines very typical examples of two of Poelenburch's most characteristic types of studies: Italianate landscape views, delicately drawn in pen and brown ink and wash, and striking, powerfully modelled red chalk figure studies.  The latter type of drawing is rather rare, and the combination of the two on the same sheet is particularly interesting.  Also rare are signed drawings by the artist.

The red chalk figure study on the verso may well show a sculpture of St. Michael vanquishing the devil.  Another drawing by Poelenburch apparently showing the upright figure from the same statuette, but seen from the side, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.¹ Alan Chong suggested, however, that the figure in the Rijksmuseum drawing was derived from Raphael's fresco, The Fire in the Borgo, but the pose does indeed seem very similar to that in the present drawing.  Chong dates the Amsterdam drawing, which also has a sketchy landscape on one side and a figure study on the other, to around 1622-24.  The present sheet too should be dated to the first half of the 1620s, during Poelenburch's stay in Italy.  

1. Inv. 1954: 186. See A. Chong, 'The drawings of Cornelis van Poelenburch', in Master Drawings, 1987, no. 1, pp. 31-2, no. 32, reproduced pl.14 (recto) and fig.14 (verso)