European Drawings 2: Catalogue of the Collections

JACQUES STELLA

1596-1657

76 An Apple Harvest

Brush and gray wash and black chalk, incised for transfer

throughout (recto), covered with red chalk for transfer

(verso); H: 24.3 cm (9^9 /ioin.); W: 32.4 cm (i2^3 / 4 in.)

86.GG.6i 9

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Paris; art market,

Paris.

EXHIBITIONS: None.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.

THIS HIGHLY FINISHED COMPOSITION IS INDENTED

throughout, suggesting that it was made with a print in

mind, probably to be executed by Stella's niece, pupil,

and engraver, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella. In composi-

tion and theme the Museum's drawing is closely related

to the sixteen Pastorales she engraved after lost paintings

by her uncle.^1 The simple clarity of form, expression, and

overall design lend a direct rustic poetry to this aspect of

Jacques Stella's work. Thematically, the scene reflects the

Northern tradition of depicting the labors of the months

and seasons, as for example in the engraving by Aegidius

Sadeler after Pieter Stevens's drawing of autumn.^2 The

Museum's drawing appears to date from relatively late in

Stella's career.

1. J. R. Thomé, "Les pastorales de Jacques et Claudine Stella,"
   Le courrier graphique 17 (September 1938), pp. 15—20.


2. F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings
   and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700 (Amsterdam, 1949), vol. 22, no.


3. 
   

l82 FRENCH SCHOOL • J. STELLA