On March 11th 1882, Vincent's uncle Cornelis Marinus van Gogh, the art dealer, visited Vincent in his studio in The Hague. Van Gogh showed him two picturesque drawings of old streets in The Hague. C.M. van Gogh seems to have been enthousiastic about them and commissioned twelve small pen and ink drawings consisting of views of The Hague 'à propos some that were ready'. As Vincent was in constant need of money this commission was a very welcome one. (...) "(..) Theo, this is almost miraculous (...), at 2.50 guilders a piece, a price fixed by me, with the promise that if they suit him, he will take twelve more (...)" (letter 180). Scarcely a fortnight later Vincent reported to Theo that the twelve drawings were finished and had been sent to Amsterdam (letter 183). While not each of these twelve drawings can be identified through Vincent's correspondence, Marta Op de Coul has been able to identify most of the drawings with the help of an annotated copy of the catalogue of a sale held at the Haagse Kunstkring in May 1902. Eleven drawings by Van Gogh, all views of The Hague, in pencil and pen, all measuring circa 21 x 35 cm. and all signed, were put up at auction. Appearently C.M. van Gogh had only been able to sell one and the remaining drawings were now consigned by him for sale (Martha op de Coul, op.cit.). It is clear that the present lot is part of this group of drawings. Although C.M. van Gogh later expressed disappointment about the outcome of this transaction, we can only say now that Vincent had made marked and rapid progress in depicting large areas and characteristic details" (J. Hulsker, op.cit., p. 38). As Griselda Pollock remarks, Van Gogh did not portray the spacious and elegant quarters of The Hague for the commission. Instead, he tried to represent the distinctly new features of The Hague, as it expanded and changed with the pressure of a growing population (Op.cit. p.331). Van Gogh knew part of these outskirts very well, for on December 29th 1881, he wrote to Theo that he had hired a studio just outside the city on the Schenkweg. However recent study has shown that the studio was not located on the Schenkweg, but in a small side-street of the Schenkweg (M. van der Mast, Ch. Dumas, op.cit., p. 17). Van Gogh made several drawings of that neighbourhood. In the present lot he depicted the façades of a row of houses on the Lekstraat. The small bridge crosses the narrow ditch, De Schenk, runs parallel to the Schenkweg (see M. van der Mast, Ch. Dumas, op.cit., p. 16). See colour illustration