Pieter Coopse

Valerius Röver (1686-1739), Delft (his numbering, 25 / 13, L.2984a-c, formerly on the verso, according to pencil inscription in the hand of Dr. H.-U. Beck);

Jhr. Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1722-1785), Amsterdam (his numbering, L.2987, formerly on the verso, according to pencil inscription in the hand of Dr. H.-U. Beck),

probably his sale, Amsterdam, De Vries, Roos et al, 1 July 1833 and following days, lot D 30; 

Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck (1930-2010), Neusäss-Westheim (bears his mark, verso, not in Lugt), by 2000

One of the most talented pupils of Ludolf Bakhuizen (1630-1708), Coopse worked first in his native Hoorn, and then in Amsterdam, where he was particularly active as a printmaker. His relatively rare drawings are generally extremely refined.

Although there are now only traces on the verso of the sheet of the characteristic collection numberings indicating that it once belonged to the great collectors Valerius Röver and Johan Goll van Franckenstein, a pencil note in the hand of another former owner, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck, records that they were once there. Dr. Beck, who is of course best known for his authoritative catalogues of the paintings and drawings of Jan van Goyen, was also spectacularly knowledgeable regarding eighteenth and nineteenth-century collectors of drawings, and the sales of their collections, and his information on early provenances such as these is not to be doubted.