Lot 65: JORIS VAN DER HAAGEN DORDRECHT CIRCA 1615 - 1669 THE HAGUE

A CANAL SCENE BY MOONLIGHT

measurements note
411 by 549mm

indistinctly signed and inscribed in pen and brown ink, lower left

point of the brush and brown ink and wash, heightened with white, on blue paper

PROVENANCE

Charles Rogers (L.624);
Heneage Finch, 5th Earl of Aylesford (L.58);
Sir Bruce Ingram (L.1405a); from whom acquired as a Christmas present, 1952

NOTE

Joris van der Haagen trained in Arnhem, under his father, Abraham, before settling in The Hague in 1639. There, he became a prominent figure: he was a founding member of the confraternity Pictura in 1656, and held offices in the Guild of St. Luke. Views of The Hague and its environs feature prominently amongst van der Haagen's drawings and painting, and although the location depicted in the present drawing has not so far been identified, it may also be in that area. The artist also made trips to the region of the lower Rhine, around Kleve.

A stylistically comparable drawing, a view in the Haagsche Bos, is in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 15132). It also employs a large format, and uses the distinctive, painterly technique seen in our drawing. Furthermore, the Albertina drawing has a lengthy inscription in brown ink across the lower centre, of a type that appears on a number of the artist's drawings, and is apparently similar to the inscription also originally present on this drawing (see M. Bisanz-Prakken, Drawings from the Albertina: Landscape in the Age of Rembrandt, exhibition catalogue, New York, The Drawing Center, and Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 1995, cat. no. 60).