Lot Essay
This drawing has been traditionally attributed to Willem Schellinks (Amsterdam 1627-1678), but Peter Schatborn has suggested that it is in fact closer to the late works of Adriaen van der Kabel. A pupil of Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), van der Kabel was influenced by the work of the Dutch Italianates from a relatively early date in his career, certainly predating his own stay in Rome. He arrived in the Eternal City in around 1660 and remained there for about eight years, acquiring the nickname Wit among his fellow Dutch artists. He seems to have been a rather quarrelsome character, becoming involved in several fights and on one occasion being arrested for carrying a sword. From about 1668 he returned to the north and made his home in Lyon, where he remained for the rest of his life (P. Schatborn, Drawn to Warmth: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Artists in Italy, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 2001, pp. 168-72).