Cattle resting near a Farm, probably near The Hague

(1) As described by Robert-Jan te Rijdt in the Amsterdam catalogue of 1997-8 (loc.cit.), the artist's '... Dutch drawings from the period 1853-55 are also dominated by his adorned vision of the landscape, a quality which was by no means common at the time. A fine example is View of a farmhouse, probably in the vicinity of The Hague (ill. 59a). Although much less exuberant than the French drawing, this sheet also bears the unmistakable traces of Koelman's "deep love of nature and his burning desire to entrust to paper all that he had found so enticing in the original scene" as his necrologist put it. The esteem in which those closest to the painter held his artistic legacy is clear from the fact that all his drawings and sketches in oil were provided with a studio stamp. Remarkably few nineteenth-century Dutch estates adopted the practice, though it was common in other countries'