A drawing in the University Printroom, Leiden, of identical medium and measurements, showing the same soldier seated, is dated
10 November 1777.
1 The present drawing must also have been made on the same occasion. As Robert-Jan te Rijdt described in the brochure accompanying his ground-breaking exhibition of 18th- and early 19th-century Dutch figure studies, in the second half of the 1770s Hoorn produced a considerable number of figure studies of this type, apparently made in a drawing academy that met on Monday evenings.
2 Such drawing societies, where professional and amateur draughtsmen met and drew side by side, were extremely popular in Holland during these years.
1. See F. Livestro-Nieuwenhuis, Jordanus Hoorn, Amersfoort 1983, p. 25, fig. 8, reproduced
2. R.J.A. te Rijdt, Nederlandse Figuurstudies 1700-1850, Rijksprentenkabinet brochure No. XXV, accompanying the exhibition held, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1994