The courtyard of an Italian house, perhaps a tavern

Although there is still no documentary evidence for Wyck's having travelled to Italy, drawings such as the present sheet indicate that he must have spent some time travelling in that country. Four other drawings of the same interior are known (Drawn to Warmth: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Artists in Italy, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 2001, pp. 118-9, figs. B-D). A drawing on Italian paper in pen and brown ink in the Rijksmuseum was surely made on the spot (Drawn to Warmth: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Artists in Italy, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 2001, p. 118, fig. B; Fig. 1), while the others, including the present one, are all more finished and washed in grey. They show some differences from the Rijksmuseum drawing in the architectural setting and were probably executed once the artist was back in Holland. Wyck also used this Italian courtyard in an etching (Hollstein 13; Fig. 2) and in a painting (anonymous sale, Amsterdam, 20 May 1919, lot 99; image at the RKD).

Fig. 1. Thomas Wyck, The courtyard of an Italian house, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum
Fig. 2. Thomas Wyck, Cooks around a well in a courtyard, etching, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum