Lot Essay
The drawing is related to a picture in the Louvre, dated 1717, which was acquired by King Louis XVI before 1785, A. Brejon de Lavergnée, J. Foucart and N. Reynaud, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre, Ecoles flamande et hollandaise, Paris, 1970, I, p. 74, illustrated. The painting was etched by Victor Pillement (1767-1814) as no. 346 in Joseph Lavallée's Galerie du Musée Napoléon, published in Paris in 1804-28. A less complex version of the drawing is in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 10542).
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck recently pointed out that the previously unidentified collector's number catalogued by Frits Lugt under 2986b is that of Jacob Helmolt (1747-1808), a Haarlem collector, Der unbekannte Zeichnungssammler Lugt 2986b identifiziert: Jacob Helmolt in Haarlem, Oud Holland, 107, The Hague, 1993, no.4, pp. 372-8. Dr. Beck added that Van Huysum's drawings from Helmolt were bought at the sale of Jan Gildemeester, agent and Portugese consul. Gildemeester sale in 1800 included forty landscapes by Van Huysum, of which Helmolt acquired probably six.
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck recently pointed out that the previously unidentified collector's number catalogued by Frits Lugt under 2986b is that of Jacob Helmolt (1747-1808), a Haarlem collector, Der unbekannte Zeichnungssammler Lugt 2986b identifiziert: Jacob Helmolt in Haarlem, Oud Holland, 107, The Hague, 1993, no.4, pp. 372-8. Dr. Beck added that Van Huysum's drawings from Helmolt were bought at the sale of Jan Gildemeester, agent and Portugese consul. Gildemeester sale in 1800 included forty landscapes by Van Huysum, of which Helmolt acquired probably six.