Old Master & British Works on Paper including works from the Collections of Carlos Alberto Cruz and the late Timothy Clowes
Old Master & British Works on Paper including works from the Collections of Carlos Alberto Cruz and the late Timothy Clowes
Haatje Pieters Oosterhuis
A series of thirty-six designs for book illustrations including scenes of war, interiors, jungles, historical scenes, marine subjects and frontispiece designs/vignettes
Lot Closed
September 23, 02:32 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Haatje Pieters Oosterhuis
Tolbert 1784 - 1854 Amsterdam
A series of thirty-six designs for book illustrations including scenes of war, interiors, jungles, historical scenes, marine subjects and frontispiece designs/vignettes
All pen and grey ink and wash; 5 drawings with pen and brown ink;
the majority signed and some dated, all mounted on card with numbering in pen and brown ink
The largest: 125 by 78 mm; The smallest: 70 by 90 mm
each card mount: 255 by 169 mm
(36)
This interesting series of thirty-six book illustrations by Haatje Pieters Oosterhuis offers the viewer a fascinating insight into his infrequently seen drawings, as well as the extraordinary breadth of subject matter that he depicted in his work.
Though his formative years were spent at the Groningen Drawing Academy, presumably in anticipation of a career as a specialist landscape or portrait painter, it is through his book illustrations, many of which were created for kinderboeken (childrens' books), that Oosterhuis is today best known.
Apart from a similar series of 20 designs which were sold at Sotheby's New York in 20191 and a group of some 80 original designs by the artist, today housed in the archives of the Amsterdam publishers Ten Brink and de Vries,2 large groups of drawings by Oosterhuis are simply unknown.
For a detailed account of Oosterhuis' life and career see Leontine Buijnsters-Smets' article: "H.P. Oosterhuis, een veelgevraagd illustrator van kinderboeken in de negentiende eeuw", De boekenwereld, 1998-1999, pp. 176-187.
1. Sale, New York, Sotheby's, 30 January 2019, lot 141
2. Buijnsters-Smets, op. cit., p. 179