Design for a title page: 'Arkadische landschappen'

Like almost all of de Bosch's arcadian landscapes, this drawing is dated and numbered. Why de Bosch numbered his drawings is not known, but R.-J. te Rijdt has suggested that it might have enabled the amateur draughtsman to track his progress as an artist (R.-J. te Rijdt, Keuze uit de Vlaamse en Hollandse tekeningen van de Stichting Jean van Caloen, exh. cat., Loppem, Stichting Jean van Caloen, 1997, pp. 57-8). De Bosch made his drawings exclusively for his own pleasure and not for commercial reasons; the well-to-do amateur did not depend on his artistic career for a living, and was employed as assistant-book-keeper at the Amsterdamse Wisselbank.