Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom

As Alice Davies noted (see Literature), the relatively early attribution to Jan van Kessel that is inscribed on the verso of this accomplished and atmospheric view of the historic ruins of the castle of Brederode cannot be sustained. 

Stylistically, the drawing combines contrasting techniques in different areas of the composition. The castle buildings and surrounding trees are drawn with some precision, the foliage in particular handled in an almost pointillist way, very reminiscent of the drawings of the early 17^th-century landscape pioneers Willem Buytewech and Jan van de Velde. The foreground motifs are, however, drawn with fluid and cursive pen strokes, creating a highly individual and engaging image. Dr. Pieter Biesboer has kindly suggested an attribution to Hendrick Vroom, and it is indeed only in the drawings of that artist that we can find close parallels to both the styles of drawing seen here, and to their combination within a single drawing.  

Drawings by Vroom are rare, and no closely comparable views of Dutch subjects are known, but a series of some ten drawings of French views, formerly given to the artist’s son, Cornelis Hendricksz. Vroom, but now generally accepted as the work of the elder Vroom, are very similarly handled in the foreground areas, and also show a comparable variation of technique from foreground through to more lightly-drawn background. Particularly comparable are views at Lyon and on the Rhône, both in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge¹, and a Rocky River Landscape near Aix-en-Provence, in the Abrams Collection. William W. Robinson’s 2002 exhibition catalogue entry on the Abrams drawing provides the most complete account of this intriguing group of French views by Vroom.² 

Those French drawings date, however, from early in Vroom’s career (he spent six months in Lyon in the mid-1580s), whereas the present view of Brederode seems rather later.  

The castle of Brederode, north of Haarlem, was a symbolic, and frequently depicted, ruin. This originally grand medieval building was damaged on various occasions, notably in 1351, 1426 and 1491, and was finally rendered a total ruin by the Spanish in 1573. As early as 1600, Brederode was drawn by Hendrik Goltzius³, and it also appears in works by Jacob Matham, Jan van de Velde, Willem Buytewech, Hercules Segers, Simon de Vlieger, Nicolaes Berchem, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Lievens and many others.  

1. Inv. nos. PD.890-1963, PD.889-1963

2. William W. Robinson, Bruegel to Rembrandt. Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., London/Paris/Cambridge MA, 2002-3, pp. 32-3, cat. 4 

3. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T-1879-A-67; E.K.J. Reznicek, Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius, 2 vols., Utrecht 1961, cat. 391