Lot 162: Jacob Isaacsz. van Ruisdael (1628/9-1682)

Two oak trees in an extensive landscape, with deer leaping beyond black lead, black chalk, brush and grey ink, grey wash, some later re-working in brush and grey ink, pen and brown ink framing lines, watermark Arms of Amsterdam 8 x 121/2 in. (203 x 318 mm.) PROVENANCE Sybrand Feitama I (1620-1701), bought in 1690 or before, by descent to Isaac Feitama (1666-1709), by descent to Sybrand Feitama II (1694-1758); Amsterdam, 16 October 1758, lot H 13. J. de Vos; Amsterdam, 30 October 1833, lot C11. Charles Fairfax Murray; Christie's London, 30 January - 2 February 1920, lot 140 (48 gns. to Agnew). LITERATURE S. Feitama, Notitie der Tekeningen van Sybrand Feitama, Unpublished manuscript in the RKD, The Hague, nos. 1303-4. J. Giltay, 'De Tekeningen van Jacob van Ruisdael', Oud Holland, 1980, pp. 155 and 201, no. 107. B.P.J. Broos, 'Notitie der Teekeningen van Sybrand Feitama: de boekhouding van drie generaties verzamelaars van oude Nederlandse tekenkunst', Oud Holland, 1984, pp. 24 and 34, note 43. B.P.J. Broos, 'Notitie der Teekeningen van Sybrand Feitama, III: de verzameling van Sybrand I Feitama (1620-1701) en van Isaac Feitama (1666-1709)', Oud Holland, 1987, pp. 176 and 210, nos. 1303-4. B.P.J. Broos, 'Improving and Finishing Old Master Drawings: an Art in Itself', Hoogsteder Naumann Mercury, 1989, p. 45. From Michelangelo to Rembrandt. Master Drawings from the Teylers Museum, exhib. cat., New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library and elsewhere, 1989, under no. 88. A.J. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk, 1992, p. 89. M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, 1997, under no. 414. S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, Yale University Press, forthcoming in the spring of 2001. NOTES The attribution to Jacob van Ruisdael has kindly been confirmed on the basis of a photograph by Seymour Slive in a letter dated 21 September 2000. Dr. Slive added that 'the foreground has almost certainly been worked-up by Isaac de Moucheron'. This drawing was executed as a pendant to a drawing now in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, M.C. Plomp, op. cit., no. 414. Both drawings were acquired for 14 florins around 1690 by Sybrand Feitama (1620-1701), an artist-collector contemporary to Ruisdael. They were described in the drawing inventory of the family as '2 Gezichten in 't Haagsche Bosch, omtr: ao 1670: waarin de voorgond is opgemmakt ao 1700 door J. de Moucheron' (Two views of the Haagsche Bosch, about 1670, in which the foreground was finished in 1700 by J. de Moucheron), B.P.J. Broos, op. cit., p. 24. The drawings passed from the collection of Feitema the Elder to the younger Feitama and were described again in the Feitema auction catalogue as 'embellished' by Isaac de Moucheron (1667-1744, cf. lot 173 of the present sale). The catalogue added that the figures were by Nicolaes Verkolje, a statment refuted by modern art historians. The amount of reworking the Feitama commissioned for their drawing collection varied, sometimes is only involved the framing lines and at other times slightly more. Michiel Plomp described the 'embellishment' of the Haarlem drawing as 'The collaboration may be judged a success, the fine brushwork of De Moucheron in the foreground effectively complementing Ruisdael's strong chalk drawing in the background', op. cit., p. 363. The Teyler drawing, which is done on a sheet of the same size and watermark, represents three oak trees on the fringe of a wood with figures in the foreground bathing in a river. The drawings are probably datable to 1655-60 (J. Giltay, op. cit., pp. 155 and 195), and not 1670 as stated in the Feitama inventories. The Feitama list also describes the drawings as being views of the woods around The Hague.