Aert Schouman

A Kind of Porcupine

No reserve

No Reserves

Lot Closed

January 25, 08:28 PM GMT

Estimate

2,000 - 3,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

From the collection of Seymour and Zoya Slive

Aert Schouman

Dordrecht 1710 - 1792 The Hague

A Kind of Porcupine

Watercolor and traces of black chalk, within partial brown ink framing lines;

signed and dated in brown ink, lower left: A. Schouman. 1770

inscribed and initialed in black chalk, verso: ene zoort van Egel half levens groot van de Caap int Cabinet van Zyn Hoogh. A.S.

315 by 255 mm; 12½ by 10 in.

Sale of the artist's estate, The Hague, Scheurleer, 10-11 December 1792, lot 411 ('Een vreemde Egel, 1770');
Jan Danser Nijman, Amsterdam,
his sale Amsterdam, Van der Schley...Roos, 19 March 1798, kunstboek H, no. 129 ('Een Egel van de Kaap');
D. van Dijl, his sale Amsterdam, Vinkeles, 22 November 1813 (postponed until 10 January 1814), Kunstboek F, no. 22 ('Een Kaapsche Egel, fraai met sapverwen');
sale Amsterdam, Van der Schley...de Vries, 29 April 1817, Kunstboek C, no. 16 ('Een vreemd soort van een Egel, half levensgroote, van de Kaap. Fraai met dito [sapverwen] geteekend, door denzelven [A. Schouman]'; f 1 aan Schotte);
Seymour and Zoya Slive, Cambridge, MA

Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Gallery, The University of Chicago, Alumni who Collect I, Drawings from the 16th Century to the Present, 1982, no. 81

Schouman notes on the reverse of this drawing that he saw the animal in question in the 'Cabinet van Zyn Hoogh[heid]', i.e. either alive in the menagerie or stuffed in the collection of the Stadholder William V, where Schouman often went to draw exotic creatures. The Dutch word he uses to identify the animal, originating from the 'Caap' (i.e. South Africa), literally translates as 'hedgehog', but it seems closer to certain species of porcupine, in particular the Brazilian porcupine.

We are most grateful to Charles Dumas for kindly informing us of the drawing's distinguished early provenance.