.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In order to create an archive of the paintings which flowed from the family's busy Haarlem workshop, Salomon de Bray and his sons drew careful copies of the works they sold. This 1662 drawing by Salomon of a painting he had completed earlier in the same year is an excellent example of this meticulous practice (inv. M.1979.45.P; Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, Fig. 1).
From 1636 Salomon was making copies of his paintings and by the 1650s his sons Jan, Joseph and possibly Dirck were inducted into this practice themselves. The discipline of copying was well regarded in The Netherlands School, but in the de Bray workshop it was not merely the apprentice artists who were involved. Jan, Joseph and, as illustrated by this accomplished drawing, Salomon himself devoted time to making copies, indicating their larger purpose. Drawings such as this delicate recreation of the Expulsion of Hagar served as an essential record of the workshop's production, and served to demonstrate their skills to prospective clients.
This highly finished drawing captures the qualities of the 1662 painting it records. Below softly tumbling ivy the central figures are picked out by light cast from the left side of the drawing. Hagar's exposed skin is illuminated by the light from which she steps away, beginning a symbolic descent down the worn shadowy stairs of which Salomon has deftly picked out every chip and crack.
Fig. 1. Salomon de Bray, The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, oil on panel, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
From 1636 Salomon was making copies of his paintings and by the 1650s his sons Jan, Joseph and possibly Dirck were inducted into this practice themselves. The discipline of copying was well regarded in The Netherlands School, but in the de Bray workshop it was not merely the apprentice artists who were involved. Jan, Joseph and, as illustrated by this accomplished drawing, Salomon himself devoted time to making copies, indicating their larger purpose. Drawings such as this delicate recreation of the Expulsion of Hagar served as an essential record of the workshop's production, and served to demonstrate their skills to prospective clients.
This highly finished drawing captures the qualities of the 1662 painting it records. Below softly tumbling ivy the central figures are picked out by light cast from the left side of the drawing. Hagar's exposed skin is illuminated by the light from which she steps away, beginning a symbolic descent down the worn shadowy stairs of which Salomon has deftly picked out every chip and crack.
Fig. 1. Salomon de Bray, The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, oil on panel, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.