Lot 154: Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629)

A soldier pouring powder into the pan of a matchlock numbered '16' black chalk, pen and brown ink, grey wash, brown ink framing lines 261 x 170 mm. PROVENANCE Bachofen-Burckhardt, Basel. With Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich ENGRAVED In the same direction in de Gheyn's studio (possibly by C. Drebbel and R. de Baudous), for the 16th plate of the Wapen handelinghe van Roers Musquetten ende Spiessen..., The Hague, 1607 (Holl. 162). LITERATURE J.Q. van Regteren-Altena, Jacques de Gheyn, Three generations, The Hague, 1983, no. 360 (as 'The lost design for the 16th caliver man'). NOTES This drawing is a study for a plate in a manual showing the drill of three infantry corps, matchlockmen, musketeers and pikemen. The prints were commissioned in 1597 by Count Johann II von Nassau-Siegen, nephew of Prince Maurits. In addition to the prints for the infantry the commission probably included 22 engravings The Exercise of Cavalry published in 1599. However the publication of the drawings for the infantry was delayed for reasons of security as Count Johann explained in a letter to his brother dated 1608. It was thought that the Spaniards might benefit from the drilling of the Dutch army. Only at the end of the war in 1607 de Gheyn was authorised to engrave and publish the book. The first edition, in Dutch, was issued in The Hague that year. Soon after an edition in English, French, German and Danish was published and many more followed. De Gheyn successfully protected his copyright by the threat of a fine of 6,000 guilders for anyone producing a pirated edition. Many of the drawings were bound in a volume in Zoomer's Collection in 1725. They passed to the engraver Jan Goeree and are recorded in his sale 1731. Large groups of these drawings are now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Further drawings from this group were sold at Christie's Amsterdam, 12 November 1990, lot 68, and in these Rooms, 4 July 1972, lot 279 and 23 March 1982, lots 66-67.