An Italianate river landscape with fortifications on either side, three men by a boat and cattle in the foreground

This is part of a group of at least eleven landscape drawings, mostly in the same technique, which Dr. K.G. Boon first attributed to Van Hillegaert, based primarily on two drawings in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (E. Bock, J. Rosenberg, Die Niederländischen Meister, Berlin, 1930, nos. 2775-6), one of which is inscribed with the artist's name on the verso. Drawings from this group are in the Kunstmuseum, Berne (inv.no. A3096), the De Grez Collection, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (inv.no. 1584), the Fodor Collection, Amsterdam (M. Schapelhouman, Tekeningen van Noord- en Zuidnederlandse Kunstenaars geboren voor 1600, Amsterdam, 1979, p. 137, no. 93, where unattributed), a Dutch private collection (Kabinet van Tekeningen, 16e en 17e eeuwse Hollandse en Vlaamse Tekeningen uit een Amsterdamse verzameling, Rotterdam, 1977, p. 55, no. 94, pl. 22, as Willem van Nieulandt II), the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (K. Andrews, Catalogue of Netherlandish Drawings, Edinburgh, 1985, I, nos. RSA 493-4, II, figs. 256-7), another formerly in the F.C. Butôt Collection; Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 16 November 1993, lot 67, and a further one sold in these Rooms, 15 November 1993, lot 43. The landscapes and architecture in some of the drawings would seem to suggest that the artist did these in Italy, while only a few, including the present lot, have coloured wash.