Old Master Drawings

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Lot 138
  • 138

Jan van Huysum

Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
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Description

  • Jan van Huysum
  • arcadian landscape with the rest on the flght into egypt
  • Pen and black ink and watercolor, within double ink framing lines;
    signed and dated, lower left: Jan van Huijsum fecit. 1734
    bears inscriptions in brown ink, verso:  h: 11 dm / b: 15 1/2 d (Ploos van Amstel), N3895 (Goll van Franckenstein), and f800

Provenance

Jhr. Johann Goll van Franckenstein (L.2987);
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (L.2034 and L.3003-4);
Dr. John Percy (L.1504)

Condition

Remains of paper hinges from previous mountings at top edges, verso. Paper slightly browned, and a little light foxing throughout, but overall condition still good and fresh. Sold in a modern frame.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

In the very specialised world of early 18th Century Dutch art, Jan van Huysum was rather unusual in working in two very different genres: still life and landscape.  His landscapes are perhaps less well known than his famous flower paintings, but nonetheless make up a significant part of his oeuvre.  Van Huysum's landscapes include both oil paintings and elaborate finished watercolors such as this, always composed in a rather Claudian manner and often, as here, incorporating a biblical or classical subject.

The present work is among the grandest and most ambitious of his known landscape watercolors – and has an appropriately illustrious provenance.  Similar in style and quality is a watercolor in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Arcadian Landscape with Diana and Company and the Discovery of Callisto's Pregnancy,1 executed just one year earlier, but comparable works appear on the market extremely rarely, and only one has been sold at auction in the past twenty years or so.2 See also the following lot.

1. Inv. No. T10.  See Sam Segal, et al, The Temptations of Flora, Jan van Huysum 1682-1749, exhibition catalogue, Delft, Museum Het Prinsenhof, and Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2006-7, cat. L7
2. Sale, Hamburg, Ketterer, 27 October 2007, lot 1066