Lot 177: HENDRIK MEIJER AMSTERDAM 1744 - 1793 LONDON

AN EXTENSIVE SUMMER LANDSCAPE WITH A CASTLE TO THE RIGHT, A CHURCH IN THE BACKGROUND, HAYMAKERS WORKING AND OTHER PEASANTS RESTING

measurements note
322 by 422 mm

signed and dated lower left: H^kMeijer.inv^t e fecit 1781

pen and black and brown ink, watercolour and gouache, within brown ink framing lines

PROVENANCE

Probably J. van Dijk,
his sale, Amsterdam, van der Schley, 14 March 1791, Kunstboek G, no. 39;
P. Langerhuizen Lzn, Bussum (L.2095);
his sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 29 April 1919, lot 533 (sold to Houthakker);
sale, London, Sotheby's, 20 April 1967, lot 234, reproduced;
with C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, until 1971

NOTE

This elaborate drawing was probably made as one of a set of four representing the seasons; many of Meijer's landscapes must originally have belonged to such series, though only one set of the seasons remains together today, in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. nos. W 21-W24; see Leslie A. Schwarz, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, Artists born between 1740 and 1800, Haarlem/Ghent/Doornspijk 2004, cat. nos. 369-372). At least two complete set of drawings by the artist representing the twelve months do, however, survive (one sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 2 November 2004, lot 135).

Thanks to information kindly provided by Drs. P.A.F. van de Kamp, it can be proposed that this drawing is the same as the one described in very similar terms, and in great detail, in the van Dijk sale catalogue of 1791 (see Provenance).