Adam Frans van der Meulen

The view shows Arnhem from the north, with the churches of Saint Eusebius and Saint Jan or Walburgis to the left.  It is closely comparable in handling and technique to the artist's panoramic view of Arnhem seen from the west, drawn on four joined sheets of paper, which is part of the great holdings of drawings by Van der Meulen in the Mobilier National, Paris.¹  The handling throughout this drawing is entirely typical of the artist, characterised by a very distinctive combination of broad, free outlines and gentle shading in black chalk, lightly worked up in many areas with very delicate washes of green, pink and blue as well as the more predictable grey and brown.  The large number of drawings by Van der Meulen depicting towns and other locations in Northern France, the Low Countries and the Lower Rhine is explained by his having accompanied the French King Louis XIV on various military campaigns throughout the region, between 1667 and 1673. Almost all those drawings are, however, in the collection of the Mobilier National, and no comparable topographical view by Van der Meulen has appeared on the market since the important panoramic view of Cambrai, sold in 1999.²

1. L.C. Starcky, Paris, Mobilier National, Dessins de Van der Meulen et de son Atelier, Paris 1988, p. 83, cat. 54
2. Sale, Château de Groussay (Sotheby's/Poulain Le Fur), 2 June 1999, lot 38