SIMON JACOBSZ. DE VLIEGER | WOODED RIVER BANK, WITH A CHURCH IN THE DISTANCE

Possibly William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (according to the 1962 Perman exhibition catalogue);

Prof. Dr. Einar Perman, Stockholm

Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Nationalmuseum and other Swedish Collections, 1953, no. 196 (as Anthonie Waterloo);

Laren, Singer Museum, Oude Tekeningen uit

de Nederlanden, Verzameling Prof E. Perman,

Stockholm, 1962, no. 143 (as Simon de Vlieger)

The 1962 Laren exhibition catalogue notes that the attribution to De Vlieger was proposed by Lyckle Frerichs. Landscapes executed in the appealing combination of media seen here form a significant part of the drawn oeuvres of both Waterloo and De Vlieger, although according to C.P. van Eeghen, the latter only began to use this characteristic blue paper regularly towards the end of his career, starting in the late 1640s.¹

Only rarely did De Vlieger incorporate such an extensive river view within one of his woodland scenes on blue paper, but the occasions when he did so produced some of his most atmospheric and accomplished drawings.  

1. C.P. van Eeghen, 'Simon de Vlieger as a Draughtsman, I: The Pen Drawings,' Master Drawings, vol. XLIV, no. 1 (Spring 2006), p. 5