PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PROFESSOR EGBERT HAVERKAMP-BEGEMANN
Abraham Bloemaert
RECTO: A BOWING BISHOP VERSO: A STANDING WOMAN IN A CLOAK, HER ARMS RAISED
LOT SOLD.
27,500 USD
Details & Cataloguing
Old Master Drawings including the Collection of Professor Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann
|
New York
New York
Abraham Bloemaert
GORINCHEM 1566 - 1651 UTRECHT
RECTO: A BOWING BISHOP VERSO: A STANDING WOMAN IN A CLOAK, HER ARMS RAISED
Red chalk and wash (recto); black chalk (verso)
257 by 142 mm; 10¼ by 5¾ in
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
257 by 142 mm; 10¼ by 5¾ in
Provenance
Sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 March 1973, lot 14;
with Herman Shickman, New York
with Herman Shickman, New York
Literature
J. Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert c.1565-1651, The Drawings, Leiden 2007, p. 292, no. 869 (recto), reproduced vol. II, fig. 869 and p. 305, no. 919 (verso), reproduced vol. II, fig. 919
Catalogue Note
The recto of the present sheet fits very securely into a group of twenty one drawings, described by Bolten as the so-called "Bishops",1 based on the fact that the models employed by Bloemaert were adorned in ecclesiastical robes, and the figures portrayed were inevitably intended for devotional images. The vast majority of drawings from this very distinctive group are similarly executed in a combination of red chalk and wash, with highly comparable examples now housed in European institutions including the Albertina, Vienna,2 and the Musée du Louvre, Paris.3
Whilst Bolten notes that some of the figures from the "Bishops" group were used by Bloemaert in subsequent painted compositions, such as The Church Fathers, "the result is almost always a conversion of poise, gestures and drapery and never an exact copy."4 Many of the studies, including the present drawing were not, however, used in paintings, but instead served the more general purpose of preparing the artist for drawing.
The verso of the present lot, executed in black chalk, was previously described by Bolten as "Black chalk (contr'épreuve?, slightly touched up)".5 The suggestion of the verso being a reworked counterproof does, however, seem improbable, given that all of the hatching strokes throughout the figure are totally consistent with that of a right handed draughtsman.
1. Bolten, op.cit., p. 290
2. Ibid., nos. 866 and 878
3. Ibid., no. 879
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid. p. 305, no. 919
Suggested Lots
Old Master Drawings including the Collection of Professor Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann
|
New York
New York
