Esaias van de Velde

With P. and D. Colnaghi & Co., London, Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Drawings...,1976,  no. 20;
Winslow and Anna Ames (L.2602a),
by descent to the present owners

G.S. Keyes, Esaias van den Velde 1587-1630, Doornspijk 1984, p. 272, no. D 185, reproduced pl. 411

Window mounted. There is a vertical crease in the paper at the left hand side, visible in the catalogue image. There is a light beige stain on the left beside the clouds. Image in the catalogue is more washed out than in reality. Stain lower left near the signature (visible in the catalogue).
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As George Keyes has noted (loc. cit.), this is the earliest dated drawing in which we see the "..tall, full crowned tree with flairing branches which appears frequently in Esaias' drawings and pictures in the earlier 1620s."  Stylistically, this atmospheric drawing reflects the innovations of Esaias' immensely original drawings from his first surviving chalk sketchbook, dating from about 1618-20¹, but also demonstrates a somewhat greater serenity, more typical of the artist's later works.

1.  G.S. Keyes, 'Esaias van de Velde and the chalk sketch,' Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 38, 1987, p. 140