An elegant Couple

The present lot is closely comparable to a number of drawings by Buytewech of elegantly dressed young couples and single figures, E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Willem Buytewech 1591-1624, exhib. catalogue, Rotterdam Paris, 1974/5, nos. 71, 73-4, 77, 79, 81-2 and 84-5, all illustrated. Professor Haverkamp-Begemann, who has seen the original, doubts the attribution but points out the similarity of the couple to that at the right in the drawing of an interior with figures dancing and music making in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (op.cit., no. 29, illustrated), which was engraved in reverse by Cornelis Koning. The male figure would seem to be the same model that Buytewech used in several other drawings, Haverkamp-Begemann, op.cit., nos. 43, 73 and 82. Although the refined pen and brown ink lines in the present drawing are not typical of the artist's work, the signature concurs with other known monograms, and the attribution to him cannot be ruled out.