Cornelis van Noorde

Though primarily known as a topographer and landscapist, the Haarlem draughtsman Cornelis van Noorde was also very interested in the depiction of animals, especially exotic ones. The artist’s sketchbook, in the Haarlem Archives, include sketches of various animals and fish, including hyenas, lions, rhinoceros and bears, and the catalogue of the sale of his estate specifically mentions drawings of chameleons, elephants, camels and other exotic creatures.¹ It seems very likely that the present drawing, and also the drawing of elephants from the Van den Broek collection, offered in the sale of Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries (25th January), are the very works referred to in the 1796 sale catalogue. The artist’s drawing of a camel was formerly in the Van Regteren Altena collection.²In the 18^th century, the most likely place where Van Noorde and other artists might have seen such exotic creatures, other than at travelling fairs, was in a permanent menagerie that had been set up around 1675 behind the Blauw Jan tavern, on Amsterdam’s Kloveniersburgwal.³ For more than a century, this was the only fixed location in Holland where living exotic animals could be seen, or purchased for private menageries. 

1.  B. Sliggers, Het schetsboek van Cornelis van Noorde, Haarlem 1982, pp.139-154

2.  Sold Amsterdam, Christie’s, 13 May 2015, in lot 32 (b)

3.  Sliggers, op. cit., p.139