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Lot Essay
Traditionally attributed to Jan Bruegel I (1568-1625) and exhibited as such in 1976-77 this drawing does not appear in Matthias Winner's publications and will not be included in the catalogue raisonné of the drawings by the artist in preparation by Louise Wood Ruby and Teréz Gerszi.
The subject of plants in close focus on a blank background, the delicacy of the pen work in brown ink which details with a great naturalistic verve each leaf of every plant, the use of the wash mostly restricted to the outlines of the leaves make this drawing very close to the only two known sheets by Johan de Verwer. The only signed and dated (1669) drawing by the artist was in the van Regteren Altena collection (Christie's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 56). The other one, which carried an earlier attribution to Jan Wijnants before being recognised by An Zwollo, is at the British Museum (Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum, exib. cat. 1984, no. 102). These two drawings were both executed in pen and brown ink, with grey wash, on white paper.
The subject of plants in close focus on a blank background, the delicacy of the pen work in brown ink which details with a great naturalistic verve each leaf of every plant, the use of the wash mostly restricted to the outlines of the leaves make this drawing very close to the only two known sheets by Johan de Verwer. The only signed and dated (1669) drawing by the artist was in the van Regteren Altena collection (Christie's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 56). The other one, which carried an earlier attribution to Jan Wijnants before being recognised by An Zwollo, is at the British Museum (Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum, exib. cat. 1984, no. 102). These two drawings were both executed in pen and brown ink, with grey wash, on white paper.