Saints Dominic and Erasmus by a column: a design for the wing of an altarpiece

In Bruges, Pourbus worked closely with his father-in-law, Lancelot Blondeel (1496-1561), and later taught his son Frans Pourbus (1545/6-1581). The present lot is closely comparable in handling and style to the small number of known drawings by the artist, P. Huvenne, 'Pieter Pourbus as Draughtsman: A Survey', Oud Holland, 94, 1980, no. 1, pp. 11-28. The almost closed eyes and the vertical hatching on the faces are particularly typical of the artist. Other drawings are in the Louvre and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig, the Stedelijk Prentenkabinet, Antwerp and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, all illustrated by Huvenne.