PIETER STEVENS
99 A Wooded Landscape with
Travelers by a Stream,
a Town Beyond
Pen and brown ink and red and blue wash; H: 21.4 cm
(87/i 6 in.); W: 33.3 cm (13'/sin.)
84.00.80 7
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left corner,
dated 97 in brown ink; on mount, inscribed Savery in
brown ink by a later hand.
PROVENANCE: Christopher Head, London; by descent
to the current owner (sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, No-
vember 26, 1984, lot 4).
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THIS DRAWING INITIALLY APPEARED AT CHRISTIE'S
Amsterdam (1984), with a correct attribution to Stevens
It has been pointed out by various scholars, includin
A. Zwollo, that the 97 inscribed in the bottom left corne
refers to the date 1597.* In her fundamental study of th
artist, Zwollo describes the painterly intensity and co
loristic richness of Stevens' drawings at this moment i
his career.^2 These effects are largely the result of the ap
plication of reddish wash highlights in the trees and blu
wash in the sky. The rather flexible pen strokes and broa
wash areas lend an atmospheric quality to the scene
From both a stylistic and a thematic point of view, thi
drawing is analogous to a landscape by Stevens in th
Frits Lugt Collection, Institut Neerlandais, Paris (inv
i693).^3 The town described at the right has not yet bee
identified, but similar structures appear often in Stevens
work.^4- Conversation with the author, 1984.
- A. Zwollo, "Pieter Stevens, Ein vergessener Maler des Ru
dolfmischen Kreises," Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlun
gen in Wien 64, new ser. 28 (1968), p. 159. - Ibid., fig. 200.
- Ibid., figs. 205 , 223, 231, 232, 234.
,. g r e - n - e d. s e. n ' - -224 FLEMISH SCHOOL • STEVENS