Abraham Bloemaert (Gorinchem 1564-1651 Utrecht)

The interior of a stable (recto); Study of a tree (verso)

Details

Abraham Bloemaert (Gorinchem 1564-1651 Utrecht)
The interior of a stable (recto); Study of a tree (verso)
pen and brown ink, brown, grey and blue wash, pen and black ink framing lines (recto); black lead, brown and red wash (verso)
5¼ x 7 3/8 in. (133 x 188 mm.)

Provenance

Dr. G.L. Laporte (L. 1170).
J.T. Cremer; Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 17 November 1980, lot 45. Jacobus Klaver, his mark (not in Lugt); Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 10 May 1994, lot 46.

Exhibited

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Abraham Bloemaert, 1564-1651, 1973, no. 9.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tekeningen van oude Meesters. De verzameling Jacobus A. Klaver, 1993, no. 21.

Lot Essay

Most closely comparable is a drawing of The interior of a forge, also in washes of muted colors over black chalk, is in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (Dessins Hollandais di Siècle d'Or, exhib. cat., Brussels, Bibliothèque Albert Ier, 1961, no. 8, pl. VI). There is also a drawing of the interior of a stable in the P. and N. de Boer Collection (Oude Tekeningen, Verzameling P. en N. de Boer, exhib. cat., Laren, Singer Museum, 1966, no. 22) and another of an Adoration of the Shepherds set in a stable interior formerly with C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, 28 April 1939, no. 359. The subject is equally unusual in Bloemaert's painted oeuvre, with perhaps the only known interior being the Holy Family in an interior of 1632 now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (M.G. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his sons, Doornspijk, 1993, no. 493, fig. 675).

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