PIETER MOLIJN | RIVER SCENE WITH FIGURES IN A BOAT, BY A BRIDGE

Sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 4 November 2003, lot 52;

Private Collection, The Netherlands

H.-U. Beck, Pieter Molyn, Katalog der Handzeichnungen, Doornspijk 1998, p. 123, no. 223

Pieter Molijn was a rather prolific draughtsman, whose style did not alter greatly over the course of his career, so his great talent and originality as a draughtsman is sometimes unfairly overlooked. In a composition such as this, though, he shows himself to be as talented in capturing the atmosphere and light of the native Dutch landscape as any of his great contemporaries, such as Jan van Goyen, Aelbert Cuyp or Jacob van Ruisdael.  

The 1650s were Molijn's most prolific and inventive period, when he produced a large number of his best and most atmospheric drawings, and also made replicas of a number of them, presumably to satisfy an insatiable market for his works.