ROELANDT SAVERY
95 Seated Woman
Pen and brown ink and graphite; H: 15 cm (5^7 /s in.); W:
17.6 cm (6I5/i6in.)
83.GA.38 3
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: Inscribed gris mus, swartte
purperren, swardtten mantel, swartte purpperen Rock, blauue
Rock in pen and brown ink and graphite by Savery.
PROVENANCE: Adolf Friedrich Albert Reinicke; by de-
scent to Martin Reinicke, Darmstadt (sale, Sotheby's,
Amsterdam, November 15, 1983, lot 145).
EXHIBITIONS: Pieter Bruegel d. A. als Zeichner, Kupfer-
stichkabinett, Berlin, September-November 1975 , no.
239 (catalogue by F. Anzelewsky et al.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Spicer-Durham, "The Drawings of
Roelandt Savery," unpub. Ph.D. diss., Yale University,
1979, vol. 2, p. 617, no. c 186.
THIS DRAWING COMES FROM THE WELL-KNOWN SERIES
of studies similar to one another in subject and style
which was long considered to be the work of Pieter
Bruegel the Elder. The studies were convincingly attrib-
uted to Savery by J. Spicer and F. van Leeuwen, whose
views have received general support.^1 Many of the sheets
are inscribed naer het leven, which Spicer has interpreted
as indicating that they reflect reality rather than being
copies from nature (Spicer-Durham 1979, vol. i, pp.
211-212).
The Seated Woman and other drawings of the naer het
leven group are inscribed by Savery with color notes,
suggesting that their subjects were intended for use in
paintings. They all have been dated by Spicer (1979, vol.
i, p. 217) to 1603-1608/09, when the artist was in
Prague. She has situated the Seated Woman relatively early
in the sequence, noting its similarity in style to a study in
the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
(1979, vol. 2, no. c 185 F i82).^2- J. Spicer, "The 'Naer Het Leven' Drawings: By Pieter Brue-
gel or Roelandt Savery?" Master Drawings 8, no. i (1970), pp.
3 -30; F. vanLeeuwen, "Figuurstudies van 'P. Bruegel,' " Sim-
iolus 5, nos. 3/4 (1971), PP- I39~i49- - L. Miinz, Bruegel: The Drawings (London, 1961), pi. 94.
2l6 FLEMISH SCHOOL • SAVERY