GERMAN SCHOOL, CIRCA 1600 | A PAIR OF STUDIES OF A BEETLE AND OTHER INSECTS

Private Collection, The Netherlands

"These powerful and appealing sheets of studies of beetles are part of a great German tradition of natural history drawing that goes back to famous watercolours by Dürer, Shongauer and others. Though dating from a slightly later moment, they still represent an intriguing and relatively early stage in the spread of Dürer’s revolutionary approach to the natural world, and somehow have an enticing air of mystery about them."

Gregory Rubinstein

These two sheets of small insects and beetles may have been part of a collection of studies of diminutive creatures kept on hand in the artist’s studio. Most likely, they were drawn after nature and functioned as preparatory drawings for a larger painting. Many German and Dutch seventeenth-century still life painters added small insects to their compositions, often on a leaf or ledge near a vase filled with flowers. There was no need to sign these drawings as their purpose was to be used as source material by the painter rather than for the art market. On the other hand, the insects could have been drawn in a cabinet of curiosity containing natural history specimens, perhaps even at the request of the cabinet's prosperous possessor.