Old Master Drawings

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Lot 156
  • 156

Herman Saftleven

Estimate
16,000 - 18,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Herman Saftleven
  • two figure studies: an old monk, and a stooped old peasant woman
  • Both pen and black ink and watercolour over black chalk, within brown ink framing lines;
    both signed, lower left, with monogram: HSL:
    both on the back of playing cards (the monk on a queen, the old woman on the ten of hearts)

Provenance

Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, sale, Amsterdam, de Vries, 2 December 1913, lot 705;
C.P. van Eeghen, Amsterdam

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Museum Fodor, Teekeningen van Oude Meesters..de Verzameling van Mr. Chr. P. van Eeghen, 1935, nos. 85 and 86

Literature

W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven 1609-1685, Berlin/New York 1982, cats. 1316 and 1317

Condition

Both drawings window mounted. Some very light foxing, surface dirt and abrasions. Light horizontal crease across centre of old woman. Playing cards on the reverse rather damaged, presumably from having been stuck down at some point. Otherwise, overall condition of drawings themselves good and fresh.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

These two drawings belong to a small group of similar studies of single figures by Saftleven, executed in this unusual watercolor technique, which are drawn on the back of playing cards.  Whether Saftleven actually made these drawings to be used as a pack of cards is not clear, but they are all consistent in terms of size, compositional approach and technique, so perhaps they were.  Nonetheless, when Wolfgang Schulz wrote his 1982 monograph on the artist, he knew of only thirteen such drawings1: two of these are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, while others are in Amsterdam, the Lugt collection in Paris and private collections.2  Perhaps surprisingly, the two examples illustrated by Schulz (his cat nos.1326 and 1327) in fact join together, to form a single landscape scene. 

The distinctive colouring of these "playing card" drawings is also very similar to that seen in the unusual, coloured drawing of a farmyard, by Herman's brother Cornelis Saftleven, sold, Amsterdam, Christie's, 10 November 1999, lot 323.

1. Schulz, op. cit., cats. 1315-1327
2. Two others were sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 4 November 2003, lots 68-69