PIETER MOLIJN
no A Scene on the Ice with
Skaters and Wagons
Black chalk and gray wash; H: 14.9 cm (5^7 /s in.); W: 19.4
cm (yVsin.)
84.03.809
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At top right corner, signed
and dated P/'Molyn /• 1655 • in black chalk.
PROVENANCE: Sir Anthony Westcombe, England; Ber-
nard Granville, England; Benjamin Waddington of
Llanover House, Monmouthshire; Lord Treowen, Llan-
over House (sale, Llanover House, Bruton and Knowles,
June 26, 1934, lot 997); AlfredJowett; M. de Beer; Baron
Paul Hatvany (sale, Sotheby's, London, July 7, 1966, lot
56); private collection (sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, No-
vember 26, 1984, lot 70).
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THIS IS ONE OF NUMEROUS LANDSCAPE DRAWINGS
of the mid-i65os which were made by Molijn as inde-
pendent works. They frequently were drawn within his
own framing lines and are often signed and dated. This
example compares closely with a drawing of a winter
landscape in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. 3121),
which has been related by Schulz to van Goyen's work
of around I65O.^1 The Museum's drawing is quite similar
to the right side of the drawing in Berlin, as if the scene
were shown in reverse and from a much nearer vantage
point. The connection to the drawings of van Goyen is
pertinent here as well, since several comparable scenes
are depicted in his compositions of the late 16405 and
early i65Os.^2 They are alike in their processions of figures
moving with horses and carts diagonally into the distance
on the ice, but van Goyen's scenes are much more anec-
dotal and include considerable auxiliary detail. Molijn
preferred instead to focus on a principal group of figures,
thereby creating a composition that is more concentrated
and monumental in effect. It has been observed by F.
Robinson that Molijn was less optimistic than van Goyen
and his scenes more barren and less hospitable.^3 This dif-
ference is in part the result of a somewhat less animated
chalk stroke, which tended to produce fuller modeling
than van Goyen's. The resulting mood is more reflective,
conveying as much as anything the isolation of the fig-
ures in nature.- W. Schultz, Die holldndische Landschaftszeichnung, 1600-
1740, exh. cat., Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Berlin, 1974, no. 121. - H.-U. Beck, Janvan Goyen: 1596-1656 (Amsterdam, 1972),
vol. 2, nos. 170, 195, 197, 338, 353. - I n Seventeenth Century Dutch Drawings from American Collec-
tions, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
and other institutions, 1977, p. 24.
248 DUTCH SCHOOL • MOLIJN