ABRAHAM VAN DYCK | CHRIST AND THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY

Jacob de Vos, Jbzn. (1803-1882), Amsterdam (L.1450),

by whom perhaps sold, 1833, as Rembrandt (according to 1919 Langerhuizen sale catalogue, but sale date may be erroneous);

William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (L.2617, with his inscription, verso: 1835 WE / from the collⁿ of M de Vos;

with Samuel Woodburn, London;

possibly Jacob de Vos, Jbsz., again;

Pieter Langerhuizen Lzn. (1839-1918), Bussum,

his sale, Amsterdam, F. Muller, 29 April 1919, and following days, lot 310 (as Aert de Gelder);

sale, Amsterdam, F. Muller (collection of Comte C. de Robiano and others), 15-16 June 1926, lot 371, reproduced (as Aert de Gelder);

Robert von Hirsch, Basel, 

his sale, London, Sotheby's, 20 June 1978, lot 37, reproduced (as Abraham van Dyck),

purchased at the sale by Albin Schram,

thence by inheritance to the present owners 

C. Vosmaer, Rembrandt Harmensz.van Rijn, sa vie et ses oeuvres, The Hague 1868, p. 508 (as Rembrandt);

M.B. Henkel, Kunstchonik und Kunstmarkt, 1919, p. 670 (as probably by Aert de Gelder);

J. Byam Shaw, 'Aert de Gelder', in Old Master Drawings, vol. IV, no. 13, June 1939, p. 12 (as Aert de Gelder);

W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 3, New York 1980, p. 1256, under no. 575^xx, pp. 1268-9, no. 581^xx, p. 1270, under no. 582^xx (as Attributed to Abraham van Dyck);

D. de Witt, Abraham van Dijck c.1635-1680, Life and Work of a Late Rembrandt Pupil, Zwolle 2020, pp. 216-7, no. D7

As Sumowski first described (loc.cit.), this drawing belongs to a group of similarly executed compositional drawings, which clearly draw their stylistic inspiration from some of the more painterly drawings of Samuel van Hoogstraten (to whom the present drawing was attributed when in the Von Hirsch collection), but are by another, distinct hand. On the basis of close similarities between the figures in one of the drawings from the group, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Mettingen, Tuliba Collection¹), and those in a painting of the same subject by Abraham van Dyck, Sumowski attributed the whole group to him.  

In his recent monograph on Van Dyck, David de Witt expands greatly on Sumowski’s groundwork, clarifying the qualities of Abraham van Dyck’s drawings during the different stages of his career. The more expansive, compositional drawings such as the present work De Witt dates circa 1652, and he has kindly informed us that he sees this drawing as one of the artist’s finest, comparable in quality to the Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, in the British Museum – a drawing that was glowingly praised by Vincent van Gogh when he visited the Museum in 1874.² Van Dyck’s drawings of this type are characterised by a firm, yet fluid handling, and elaborate, pictorial compositions, and are good examples of how high was the quality of some of the drawings being produced even by Rembrandt's less well known pupils during the 1650s.

Given their respective birth and death dates, one might have assumed that the great Dutch collector Jacob de Vos acquired the drawing from William Esdaile, but the latter's inscription on the reverse makes clear that the drawing in fact passed in the opposite direction, towards the end of Esdaile's life. It may, though, have been repurchased by De Vos after Esdaile's death.  

Albin Schram (1926-2005) was a voracious but discerning collector of works on paper and autograph documents. The story goes that his fascination with these records of human interactions and artistic creation was sparked when his mother presented him with a romantic letter from Napoleon Bonaparte to his future wife Josephine de Beauharnais, attempting to patch up an argument. The superb collection of late 19th and early 20th century works on paper from the Schram collection, including drawings by artists such as Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, August Macke, Emil Nolde and Alfred Kubin, was sold at Sotheby's last month, under the title: The Artist's Sketchbook: Where Inspiration finds Form. 

1. Sumowski, cit., 575^xx; De Witt, op. cit., no. D1

2. London, British Museum, inv. no. Oo,10.123; De Witt, cit., no. D8