Old Master & British Works on Paper
Old Master & British Works on Paper
Female nude, seen from behind
Lot Closed
July 8, 12:49 PM GMT
Estimate
7,000 - 9,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Jacob van Loo
Sluis 1614 - 1670 Paris
Female nude, seen from behind
Red chalk over traces of black chalk
173 by 162 mm
Jacob van Loo was one of the artists in the Amsterdam group around Rembrandt who took a particular interest in drawing the female nude. A black and white chalk study, in the Leiden University printroom, is the preparatory drawing for the central figure in the artist's painting of Danaë, in a Dutch private collection, and gives a clear indication of the distinctive qualities of Van Loo's drawing style: bold, linear contours, delicate shading, somewhat schematic features, and a good grasp of modelling and foreshortening.2 Although drawings in red chalk by Van Loo seem to be much rarer than those in black and white chalk, the handling seen here seems similar enough to drawings such as the connected study in Leiden to support the attribution.
It is also worth noting that within a very few decades of its making, the drawing came into the collection of the great connoisseur, Sir Peter Lely.
1. J. Noorman & D. De Witt (ed.), Rembrandt's Naked Truth. Drawing nude models in the Golden Age, Amsterdam 2016, pp. 11-14
2. Ibid., pp. 132-3, cat. 32 and fig. 89