88 Landscape
Pen and brown ink and watercolor; H: 19 cm (7^7 /i6 in.);
W: 36.4 cm (i4^5 /i6 in.)
85.00.96
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left corner, col-
lection mark of N. A. Flinck (L. 959).
PROVENANCE: N. A. Flinck, Rotterdam; William, sec-
ond duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth; by descent to the
current duke (sale, Christie's, London, July 3, 1984, lot
58); art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth,
Arts Council Gallery, London, 1949 , no. 2 9 (catalogue
by A. E. Popham). Le cento opere di Van Dyck, Palazzo
delTAccademia, Genoa, June-August 1955, no. 104. An-
toon van Dyck: Tekeningen en olieverfschetsen, Rubenshuis,
Antwerp, and Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rot-
terdam, July-August and September-November 1960,
no. 121 (catalogue by R.-A. d'Hulst and H. Vey). Old
Master Drawings from Chatsworth, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C., and other institutions, 1962-
1963 , no. 84 (catalogue by A. E. Popham). Old Master
Drawings: A Loan Exhibition from the Devonshire Collec-
tion, Royal Academy of Arts, London, July-August
1969, no. 84 (catalogue by A. E. Popham). The Age of
Charles I: Painting in England 1620-1649, Tate Gallery,
London, 1972, no. 121 (catalogue by O. Millar). Old
Master Drawings from Chatsworth, National Museum of
Western Art, Tokyo, 1975, no. 80. Old Master Drawings:
A Loan from the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Israel
Museum, Jerusalem, April-July 1977, no. 29.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Vey, Die Zeichnungen Anton van
Dycks (Brussels, 1962), vol. i, p. 362, no. 307; C. van
Hasselt, Dessinsflamands du dix-septieme siecle, exh. cat.,
Collection Frits Lugt, Institut Neerlandais, Paris, 1972,
p. 52, under no. 35.THIS IS ONE OF A SMALL GROUP OF LANDSCAPE
drawings with watercolor by van Dyck that have been
dated by Vey to the artist's second English period (1962,
nos. 303-307). Several of them have an unfinished ap-
pearance, which Vey has reasonably interpreted as indi-
cating that they are studies of motifs rather than complete
compositions (1962, no. 306). Nevertheless, they are
fully coherent and unified, suggesting that Millar was
correct in considering them as spontaneous impressions
made during relaxed moments as well as material for
backgrounds of paintings (1972, no. 120). The Mu-
seum's landscape is quite similar to that behind the sitter
in the Portrait of a Girl as Erminia, Attended by Cupid in the
collection of the duke of Marlborough,^1 which is consid-
ered by Millar as possibly from van Dyck's second Flem-
ish period. Among the artist's landscape watercolors the
Museum's sheet is closest in technique to one in the Dev-
onshire collection, Chatsworth (inv. 1003; Vey 1962, no.
306). Its wide vista with a prominent tree near the center
is comparable to the composition of a pen-and-ink draw-
ing of the same period in the Frits Lugt Collection, In-
stitut Neerlandais, Paris (inv. 5922; Vey 1962, no. 308).
Vey has proposed that the Museum's sheet and related
studies date from late in van Dyck's life. It is among the
extraordinary moments in landscape drawing of the sev-
enteenth century, with its rich and translucent colors,
breadth of conception, and freshness of both watercolor
and pen accents.i. G. Gluck, Van Dyck, Des Meisters Gemalde, Klassiker der
Kunst, vol. 13 (Stuttgart, 1931), p. 408.198 FLEMISH SCHOOL • VAN DYCK