Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Jan Josefsz van Goyen
The horse market in Valkenburg
Auction Closed
January 26, 04:31 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 10,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Jan Josefsz van Goyen
Leiden 1596 - 1656 The Hague
The horse market in Valkenburg
Black chalk and gray wash;
inscribed in black chalk, top centre (partially cut): valken burger maerkt (?), and bears inscription in pen and brown ink, top left (partially cut): valkenburger paerde maerkt
119 by 232 mm; 4⅝ by 9⅛ in.
This lively drawing is one of a number of equally rapidly executed studies by Van Goyen which share the same format as this sheet, and are similarly inscribed along the top edge with topographical identifications.1 All probably originate from a single sketchbook, and are dated by Beck to the 1630s.
The annual horse fair at Valkenburg, near Leiden, held each year around 17 September, was a major event dating back to medieval times. A variant of this composition, with different staffage to the left, exists in at least two versions, one in Copenhagen, the other sold in Paris.2
1. H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, vol. I, Amsterdam 1972, cat. nos. Z 744, 745, 761, 765, 766, and idem, vol. III, Doornspijk 1987, cat. no. Z 775A. Another was recently sold in these Rooms: sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 27 January 2021, lot 98
2. Beck, op. cit., vol. III, no. 813a; sale Paris, Sotheby’s, 1 April 2015, lot 105