Circle of Cornelis van Poelenburch (Utrecht 1594/5-1667)

The Grotto of Virgil near Posillipo

Details

Circle of Cornelis van Poelenburch (Utrecht 1594/5-1667)
The Grotto of Virgil near Posillipo
with inscription 'de grotto van vergilius. na t Leven / getekend door W. Schellinx.' (verso)
pen and brown ink, brown wash, brown ink framing lines
31.1 x 21.2 cm.

Exhibited

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, under no. 122 (as 'close to Breenbergh'; catalogue by J. Giltaij).
Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum, In de ban van Italië: Tekeningen uit een Amsterdamse verzameling, 1995, no. 13 (as anonymous circa 1620; catalogue by I. Oud, M. Jonker and M. Schapelhouman).

Brought to you by

Harriet West

hwest@christies.com +442073892541

Lot Essay

According to the inscription on the verso of this drawing it should be given to Willem Schellinks (1627-1678). However, it is stylistically different to a drawing by Schellinks, also showing the Grotto of Virgil, previously in the I.Q. van Regteren Altena collection (Christie's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 65). The rendering of the trees and plants is especially different, and seems to be closer to that of a drawing by Poelenburch in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-T-1989-89; P. Schatborn, Drawn to Warmth: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Artists in Italy, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 2001, p. 59, fig. D).

We are grateful to Peter Schatborn for having suggested the attribution to Cornelis van Poelenburch.

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