Lot 178: Johan Thopas ? Assendelft circa 1630 - circa 1700 , portrait of a man, half length, within a drawn niche black chalk, black lead and grey and black ink wash, on vellum

signed and dated in brown ink, lower right: J: Thopas: fecit: 1660 black chalk, black lead and grey and black ink wash, on vellum

measurements note 167 by 137mm

J.M. Vreeswijk, sale, Amsterdam, 3 May 1882, lot 289*;
C. Hoogendijk Collection, The Hague, 1902 (no. 30);
Sale Alfr. Boreel et al., Amsterdam, 15 June 1908, no. 576 (together with no 575, 30 guilders to Dirksen);
Sale O. Brenner et al., Amsterdam, 14 December 1911, no. 1486

Little is known about the life of Johan Thopas. He is believed to have been a native of Assendelft, but in 1688 he joined the painters' guild in Haarlem. With the exception, however, of one oil painting, all his known works are drawings, almost all extremely fine, meticulously drawn portraits, made as finished works of art in their own right. Dr. Rudi Ekkart is currently preparing a catalogue raisonné of the artist's works. Dated examples exist from between 1646 and 1676, but his surviving oeuvre remains very small. Amongst his finest works are the five highly finished portraits of members of the Tulp family, in the Six Collection, Amsterdam, which are, however, fully colouredυ1. Also notable is the charming Portrait of a Boy as a Hunter, in the Abrams Collectionυ2, executed, like the present drawing, in the artist's most characteristic technique of graphite and/or pen and black ink on vellum. We are very grateful to Dr. Rudi Ekkart for providing the provenance for this drawing. 1. See S.A.C. Dudok van Heel et al., Nicolaes Tulp, Amsterdam 1998, pp. 64-5 2. See William W. Robinson, Brueghel to Rembrandt, Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum et. al., 2002-3, cat.no. 95.