- 196
Egbert van Drielst
Description
- Egbert van Drielst
- 'Kraantje Lek', near Haarlem
- Watercolour and gouache over black chalk, within brown ink framing lines;
signed and dated, verso: E. van Drielst 1804 and inscribed: Kraantie Lek buijten Haarlem
Catalogue Note
The 'Kraantje Lek' lay within the estate at Elswout, owned from 1781 until 1805 by Jacob Boreel, who had the park transformed into an English-style landscape garden, which soon became a source of inspiration for many landscapists, including van Drielst. Between 1792 and 1796, the artist made a number of drawings, watercolours and paintings of various locations on the estate, four of which were engraved by Hendrik Schwegman in 1794, and also executed wall paintings in the house itself.1 In 1805, one year after van Drielst made this drawing, the estate was sold to the financier, Willem Borski.
Although van Drielst had studied in Haarlem, with Hendrik Meijer, and worked at Elswout, most of his landscape drawings depict heavily wooded locations in the province of Drenthe, in the north east of the Netherlands, to the point that he gained the soubriquet, the 'Drentse Hobbema.' This nickname was surely a reference not only to his preferred subjects but also to his abilities, as van Drielst's landscape drawings and watercolours are some of the most accomplished and atmospheric of his time.
1. B. Gerlagh and E. Koolhaas-Grosveld, Egbert van Drielst 1745-1818, Zwolle 1995, pp. 67-8, 88, 92-3, 125, figs. 54, 56, 88-9, 94-97, 117; and sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 14 May 2003, lot 205