Old Master Drawings
Old Master Drawings
Property from the Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection, Amsterdam
View of the Lower Rhine valley, looking from Kleve towards Emmerich
Auction Closed
January 27, 05:29 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection, Amsterdam
Adam Pijnacker
Schiedam 1620 - 1673 Amsterdam
View of the Lower Rhine valley, looking from Kleve towards Emmerich
Pen and brown ink and grey wash over black chalk, on two joined sheets of paper;
signed and inscribed in black lead, lower left: a. Pijnacker. Cleef ziende na Embrik, and bears inscription in brown ink, verso: 50 Pijnacker
239 by 582 mm; 9 ½ by 22 ⅞ in
As Peter Schatborn has described (loc. cit.), the style of this drawing is typical of the broad, rather freely executed studies that Pijnacker made directly from nature, on the basis of which he would produce, back in the studio, both his paintings and his more carefully finished drawings. This is, though, an exceptionally large example of one of the artist's plein air drawings, and is also unusual in that he has worked up some parts of the foreground in pen and ink.
All the same, the penwork and the chalk that underlies the entire composition are both handled in the nervously insistent manner that is so characteristic of Pijnacker's drawing style. The contrast between the sense of movement in the chalk and pen strokes and the calmness generated by the broad grey washes, flowing between wide areas of entirely blank paper, creates a very distinctive and satisfying sense of light and atmosphere.
The fact that there are two drawings in this sale that can convincingly be attributed to Pijnacker (see also lot 99) might suggest otherwise, but drawings by the artist are actually very rare, all the more so a grand sheet like this, in which the precise location depicted is known. Other characteristic sketches made from nature, similar in technique but smaller and not worked up in pen, are in the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum, the latter signed in black lead in the same way as the present work.1
1. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. no. RF 34542; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T-1964-59; reproduced Schatborn, loc. cit., figs. F and H.