Jacob van der Ulft

Purchased from C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, in 1920 by Dr. Curt Otto, Leipzig (L.611c),

his posthumous sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 7 November 1929, lot 140;

sale Paris, Aguttes, 19 December 2017, lot 29

Although Van der Ulft made numerous very specific views of Rome, it is unclear whether he ever actually visited Italy. The contemporary biographer Arnold Houbraken states definitively that he did not go to Italy, and further claims that his Roman views were based on the work of other artists. Certainly, Van der Ulft was profoundly influenced by the work of another amateur artist, his contemporary Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671), whose drawings approach his own in both style and handling. (It is likely, however, that De Bisschop himself never travelled to Italy). A number of copies by Van der Ulft of drawings by De Bisschop are known, which suggests that the former may have had access to his studio. An album of forty-three landscape drawings by both Jacob van der Ulft and Jan de Bisschop, mostly views in or around Rome, is in the collection of the Dukes of Devonshire at Chatsworth. Another album of Roman views by Van der Ulft is in the Fondation Custodia in Paris.

An especially refined example of Van der Ulft’s draughtsmanship, this highly finished drawing - prominently signed and dated - was almost certainly intended as an autonomous work of art for sale. As Michiel Plomp has noted, ‘Jacob van der Ulft produced many drawings and paintings of festive processions in imaginary ancient cities...It is not always clear whether Van der Ulft meant to depict actual historical facts.’¹ Other drawings by the artist that are similarly crowded with figures are in Paris, Haarlem, Berlin and New York.²

The use here of oriental ('Japan') paper is unusual for Van der Ulft, but he was clearly an artist who appreciated the smooth surfaces offered by vellum, on which he made many of his gouaches, so it is not perhaps surprising that he should sometimes also have turned to papers of this type. Following the first documented arrival in the Netherlands of shipments of oriental papers, in 1643 and 1644, various artists - including Rembrandt - made regular use of this attractive and durable support.

^1.Michiel C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum. Vol.II: Artists Born Between 1575 and 1630, Haarlem/Ghent/Doornspijk 1997, p. 399, under no. 464.

^2.Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. 23236; Haarlem, Teylers Museum, Inv. Q71, Plomp, loc. cit.; Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. 4338; New York, Morgan Library & Museum, Inv. 1985.16