Jan van Huysum

Bears unidentified collector's mark, lower right (not in Lugt)

Ink and wash good and fresh, and paper generally reasonably clean. Various repaired tears, left & right edges. Paper thin in both top corners. Some dark grey spotting in the middle of the composition. Two small light brown marks in the centre of the sheet, and various tiny darker brown dots towards the top. Sold in a modern carved and gilded frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Dr. Sam Segal, who has kindly confirmed the attribution, points out a link with a painting of 1723, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, although that painting has a statue of Flora in the left background, rather than the Hercules and the Lion seen here.¹  Three other drawings by Van Huysum explore the present version of the composition: one, in the Albertina, Vienna, is executed in oiled charcoal, the other two are oil studies on paper, in Berlin and Paris.²  It is possible that all four of these drawings relate to a variation of the Amsterdam painting, now lost, but they can equally well be less precisely connected explorations by Van Huysum of the composition.  The very loose, soft handling seen here suggests that this is a rapid, initial sketch of a compositional thought.

1.  S. Segal, The Temptations of Flora, Jan van Huysum 1682-1749, exhib. cat., Delft, Museum Het Prinsenhof, and Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2006-7, no. F14 
2.  Segal, loc. cit., figs. F14.2-F14.4