An Italianate landscape with travellers and a donkey

I.Q. van Regteren Altena dedicated his first of four articles in Oud Holland on forgotten artists ('Vergeten namen' [Forgotten names]) to Hendrick Sonnius. Very little is known about Sonnius, an artist from The Hague, to whom only three drawings have been attributed. The present drawing was given to Sonnius by van Regteren Altena on the basis of the inscription on the verso. According to the inscription the drawing was made in Rome, and although the composition may be inspired by the landscape around Rome, it was most likely not executed from life. Another landscape drawing by Sonnius, signed and dated 1645 and also on vellum, is in the British Museum, London (inv. SL,5237.89)