Leonaert Bramer

Curtis O. Baer (L.3366);
with Jill Newhouse, New York

Eric M. Zafran, Master Drawings from Titian to Picasso. The Curtis O. Baer Collection, exh. cat., Washington, D.C., et al, 1985-87, p. 183, no. 140

Hinge mounted in two places along the upper edge to a modern paper backing. The sheet has fractionally discoloured and there is evidence of minor surface dirt throughout. There is some minor localised staining to the left centre of the bottom edge and the right half of the sheet. The medium remains in predominantly good condition, both recto and verso. Sold in an imitation darkwood frame.
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This lively and dynamic double sided drawing depicts singers and musicians in a gallery.  They are set behind a balustrade, recto and verso, a clever compositional device employed by Bramer, where he plays with perspective, showing certain figures leaning out over the banister and figures jutting out between the columns. In terms of dating this sheet, one can closely compare it with a drawing of Figures along a Colonnade in a private collection, The Netherlands, which was exhibited in Delft in 1994 and has been dated to the 1640s.¹  The Haverkamp-Begemann drawing demonstrates the same free drawing style and rounded faces as are seen in the Dutch private collection sheet.  It is also interesting to note that Bramer used a similar compositional device in Figures along a colonnade, which must have been a preparatory study for a staircase ceiling painting.

^1. Leonaert Bramer 1596-1674: Ingenious Painter and Draughtsman in Rome and Delft, exh. cat., Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, no. 19