Attributed to Jan Lievens

Jacob de Vos Jbzn. (L.1450),
his sale, Amsterdam, 22 May 1883, lot 302;
Karl Eduard von Liphart, his sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 26 April 1898, lot 566;
sale, Amsterdam, F. Muller (Collection Henri Duval, Liège, and other sources), 22-23 June 1910, lot 214 ("superbe dessin");
Otto von zur Mühlen, his sale, Berlin, 5 Jule 1912, lot 313;
Arnold Otto Meyer, Hamburg, his sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 19 March 1914, lot 325 ("Von ausgezeichneter Qualität");
the widow Galippe, her sale, Amsterdam, de Vries, 27 March 1923, lot 473 (reproduced);
R.W.P. de Vries, sale, Amsterdam, 22 June 1929, lot 349 (reproduced);
sale, Amsterdam, de Vries (Vincent van Gogh Collection and other sources), 16 July 1930, lot 108;
sale, Amsterdam, de Vries, 9 December 1930, lot 283 (in every case as by Lievens);
The Princes of Liechtenstein;
with C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf (Neue Lagerliste 76, 1982, no. 30, as after Jan Lievens);
Jacobus A. Klaver, Amsterdam 

H. Schneider, Jan Lievens, Haarlem 1932, pp. 242-3, cat. Z 369 B;
M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de nederlandsche Teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, Deel I, Rembrandt en Zijn School, 's-Gravenhage 1942, p. 91, under no. 1 (as a copy of a lost original);
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 7, New York 1983, p. 3736, under no. 1677^x (as a copy)

Unframed. Window mounted on japan paper. The majority of the drawing appears to have been damaged by moisture which has caused the ink to bleed. There are also some isolated small dark stains, for example in the upper left corner.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A number of the landscape drawings of Lievens exist in more than one version, and the debate surrounding the authorship of the different sheets has sometimes been long and complex. In the majority of cases where there is more than one version of a composition, one of the drawings is on traditional western paper, while the other uses oriental ("Japan") paper.  Oriental papers were occasionally used by several 17^th-century Dutch artists, but the only two who explored with any regularity the unique surface effects that these papers offered were Rembrandt and Lievens.  In the case of Rembrandt, almost all the works on oriental paper are prints, but Lievens used this support regularly for his large, finished landscape drawings, studio works made for sale to an eager market.

Since at least the 18^th Century it has been suggested that some of the landscape drawings traditionally given to Jan Lievens are actually by his son, Jan Andrea, but the absence of any surely attributed similar works by the younger Lievens makes this hard to prove.  Also, in the case of the multiple versions, there are no clear stylistic or qualitative patterns that easily permit the attribution of some drawings to the father and some to the son.  In the present case, the composition is also known from two other versions.  One, in Orléans, has been described by Sumowski as the prime version, of which this and another drawing in Amsterdam are copies.  The Orléans drawing must have been cut to the left, as the composition is narrower than here.  Qualitatively, the drawing in Orléans does seem stronger than the present sheet, but the possibility remains that all three versions of the composition hark back to another, lost prime version.  It also remains unclear which of the various versions were drawn by Jan Lievens himself, and which by followers.  When an artist makes repetitions of his own works, for sale, these drawings are inevitably less interesting and animated than the prime versions, and can easily be mistaken for copies by another hand.