Old Master & British Works on Paper

Old Master & British Works on Paper

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 133. Recto: fireworks before a grand house; Verso: View of Greenwich.

Egbert Lievensz. van der Poel

Recto: fireworks before a grand house; Verso: View of Greenwich

Lot Closed

July 8, 12:47 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 9,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Egbert Lievensz. van der Poel

Delft 1621 - 1664 Rotterdam

Recto: fireworks before a grand house;

Verso: View of Greenwich


Black chalk and grey wash, heightened with white (recto and verso), on blue paper

170 by 208 mm

Hamburger Kunsthalle (L.1328);
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 15 November 1983, lot 220;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 July 2012, lot 113
Stylistically, the drawing on the recto is very close to the small handful of known works by Van der Poel, such as the example formerly on the New York art market1, and the subject of nocturnal conflagration is also one that he favoured.  These subjects are usually catastrophic rather than festive in nature, although there is a 1654 painting by the artist showing rather similar festivities and fireworks in front of the Gemeenlandshuis in Delft.2  The location of this scene of celebration is, however, uncertain.  The intriguing and much more topographical study on the verso, on the other hand, seems to depict Greenwich, with the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1635, to the left. We are very grateful to Dr. Pat Hardy of the Museum of London for identifying the view. Whether or not the artist ever saw the buildings themselves remains, though, uncertain.

The illustrious history of the Dutch drawings collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle has recently been described by Annemarie Stefes.3

1. New York, Sotheby's, 25 January 2012, lot 172

2. Bonn, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Inv. Nr. 38.2; F. Goldkuhle et al., Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Gemälde bis 1900, Cologne 1982, pp. 412-3 

3. A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen 1450-1850. Kupferstichkabinett der Hamburger Kunsthalle, 3 vols., Cologne/Weimar/Vienna 2011, pp. 1-10