A Servant fastening the Shoe of a Patriarch

Though trained and active as a lawyer in The Hague, Jan de Bisschop was among the most accomplished amateur draughtsmen of the Dutch Golden Age (J. G. van Gelder, ‘Jan de Bisschop’, Oud Holland, 1971, p. 230). Known for his atmospheric wash drawings in the distinctive reddish-brown medium, later known as ‘Bisschop’s ink’, he produced landscapes, Italianate views and, as is probably the case with this drawing, copies after Old Master paintings and antique sculpture, of which at least 180 are known (J. S. Turner, Dutch Drawings in The Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, I, p. 37, under no. 30).