Lot 19: Marten Pepyn Antwerp 1575 - 1642/3 , let the children come bears inscriptions, lower right: 3ou (?), and verso: Simon Vouet and Fo pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk

bears inscriptions, lower right: 3ou (?), and verso: Simon Vouet and Fo pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk

measurements note 326 by 252mm

This drawing has previously gone under a wide range of names, ranging from Simon Vouet to Hendrick de Clerck, but has recently been recognised as the study, with certain differences in details, for a painting (fig. 1) in the Maagdenhuismuseum, Antwerp, executed by the rare Antwerp painter, Marten Pepyn.υ1 The son of a relatively humble merchant, Pepyn rose to be a figure of some significance in the Antwerp art establishment: in 1632, van Dyck painted his portrait, and Rubens' wife, Isabella Brant, was godmother to one of his children. Despite this, his works are relatively rare, and his drawing style has never been defined. This securely connected drawing is therefore rather important, as the first documentary drawing on which further attributions to the artist can, in time, be based. Stylistically, Pepyn's paintings have regularly been associated with Mannerist influences from artists such as his compatriot Maerten de Vos, and the Dutchmen Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis van Haarlem. In this drawing, it is the influence of de Vos that is most obvious, but the style is nonetheless a very personal one, and it is therefore possible, after some centuries, to see exactly how Marten Pepyn approached the creation of his paintings. 1. See J. de Maere and M. Wabbes, Illustrated Dictionary of 17υth Century Flemish Painters, 3 vols., Brussels 1994, plate 963