Roelant Roghman

Although Houbraken reports that Roghman was a good friend of Gerbrand van den Eeckhout and also of Rembrandt, few details of his life are known for certain. Roghman seems to have been active for the greater part of his career in Amsterdam, but in the mid 1650s he visited the Alps, during the course of a journey that took him to France, Germany and probably Switzerland, and the subjects of his paintings, drawings and etchings suggest that he may also have travelled to Italy.

Roghman’s drawings range from restrained topographical views of Netherlandish sites, including the famous series of more than 240 sheets depicting castles in the provinces of Holland, Utrecht and Gelderland, executed between 1646 and 1647¹, to landscapes, many of which appear to be based on memories of his southern journey. The latter, which are usually freely invented, mountainous views, are mainly executed in a broad, vigorous manner with pen and wash over a sketch in black chalk. The present drawing belongs to the category classified by Sumowski as monumental landscapes owing to their generally heroic themes and grandiose compositions.² Of this group only one drawing in Leipzig is dated, 1655.³ The great majority of these monumental landscapes incorporate extensive work in pen and ink, and the present drawing is unusual, in rendering this type of composition in the more restrained medium of black chalk and grey wash.

1. H.W.M. van der Wijck and J.W. Niemeijer, De Kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman, 2 vols., Aalphen aan den Rijn 1989-90

2. W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. X, New York 1992, nos. 2234-2250, 2257^x, 2258^x

3. Museum der Bildenden Künste (N.I. 471); Sumowski, op.cit., no. 2234