Dutch School, 17th Century

A servant girl sleeping

Details

Dutch School, 17th Century
A servant girl sleeping
red and white chalk on buff paper
12½ x 17½ in. (31.9 x 44.5 cm.)

Provenance

Prince Wladimir Nikolaevich Argoutinsky-Dolgoroukoff (1874-1941) (L. 2602d); from whom purchased by I.Q. van Regteren Altena on 7 July 1929 for 300 guilders (Inventory book: '726. t. Vermeer? slapend meisje').

Literature

J.G. van Gelder, 'Een teekening van Carel Fabritius en een teekening van Johannes Vermeer', Oud Holland, XLVII, 1931, p. 273, pl. 3 (as Vermeer).
C. Zilva, 'An Exhibition of Drawings in Brussels from Jeroen Bosch to Rembrandt', Apollo, XXVII, 1938, p. 43.
I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Holländische Meisterzeichnungen des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, Basel, 1948, no. 43, illustrated (as Vermeer).
P.T.A. Swillens, Johannes Vermeer, Ultrecht, 1950, p. 111, no. 7 (as Vermeer).
V. Bloch, Tutta la pittura di Vermeer di Delft, Milan, 1954, p. 29 (as doubtful).
L. Goldscheider, Vermeer, London, 1958, p. 143, no. II, illustrated (as possibly by E. Boursse).
I.Q. van Regteren Altena, 'Een jeugdwerk van Johannes Vermeer', Oud Holland, LXXV, 1960, p. 190 (as Vermeer).
L. Goldscheider, Vermeer, 2nd edition, London, 1967, p. 145, no. II, illustrated (as possibly by E. Boursse).
C. Brown, 'Review of the 1976-77 exhibition', Burlington Magazine, CXIX, February 1977, p. 217, where an attribution to Eglon van der Neer is suggested.
C. Brown, 'Review of the 1976-77 exhibition', Master Drawings, XVI, 1978, no. 1, p. 64.
M. Plomp, 'Drawing and Printmaking in Delft during the Seventeenth Century', Vermeer and the Delft School, exhib. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum, and London, National Gallery, 2001, p. 584, note 49.

Exhibited

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Dessins hollandais de Jérôme Bosch à Rembrandt, 1937-38, no. 127, pl. LXXVIII (as Vermeer; catalogue by F. Schmidt-Degener).
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Paris, Fondation Custodia, and Brussels, Bibliothèque Albert 1er, Le Cabinet d'un Amateur: Dessins flamands et hollandais des XVIe et XVIIe siècles d'une collection privée d'Amsterdam, 1976-77, no. 145, pl. 93 (as Vermeer with reservations; catalogue by J. Giltaij).

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Lot Essay

Purchased for 300 guilders - one of the largest sums spent by van Regteren Altena on a drawing - this sheet was published as by Vermeer by van Gelder, Swillens and van Regteren Altena and exhibited as such in 1938 and 1976-77. It was without doubt one of the most famous drawings in the collection and in his Master Drawings review of the 1976-77 catalogue Christopher Brown wrote that it was thanks to this sheet that he identified with certainty the identy of the anonymous 'Amateur' whose collection was the subject of the exhibition: 'It took the present reviewer until he reached item 145 in the catalogue until he could be certain of the identity of this bashful collector. Under that entry, one will find a drawing listed as by Vermeer, and it is only in a room overlooking the Vondelpark in Amsterdam that one is likely to be faced with such a challenging attribution'. Today the attribution to Vermeer is indeed unanimously rejected as no drawing can be securely attributed to the artist. Goldscheider suggested an attribution to Esaias Boursse (1631-1672) as he noted the strong resemblance of the drawing to a Maidservant sleeping on a chair, a painting once in the Heilgendorff collection, Berlin (W.R. Valentiner, Pieter de Hooch. The Master's Paintings..., New York, 1930, pl. 199). But apart from an album of grey wash drawings made in Ceylon (Christie's, Amsterdam, 11 November 1996, lot 128; now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) no drawing by Boursse is known.

For another drawing attributed to Vermeer by I.Q. van Regteren Altena, see lot 185.

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