Drebbel drawing

ADRIAN DREBBEL, MASTER AD^R

active Alkmaar, northern Netherlands last quarter 16^th century

A Panoramic Landscape with a Solitary Rider.

Drawing in pen and brown ink with touches of black chalk. Signed with the monogram AD^r and dated 1585. See Nagler Die Monogrammisten I, 445, p. 242 and Thieme Becker, Künstler Lexikon, vol. IX, p. 544. Watermark: Crescent moon with clover above and letters below (similar to Heawood 850, datable Schieland 1579). 

Adrian Drebbel is said to have made a group of landscape drawings in the manner of Pieter Bruegel signed with the monogram above and dated 1585. He worked in Alkmaar, a city on the North Sea, about twenty-five miles north of Amsterdam. Earlier authors referred incorrectly to our monogrammist as Adrian Drebber.

Our drawing shows the influence of Pieter Bruegel’s landscape drawing style. We may compare our sheet to Bruegel’s Alpine Landscape at the Louvre (inv. 19.7280). Panoramic views of a valley in the middle ground and the rocky hills receding into the distance are common to both, as is the delicately drawn river and hills in the extreme rear ground of the image.

Bruegel’s towering artistic personality lent impetus to the interest in landscape in the Netherlands throughout the second half of the 16^th century, which continued through the 17^th century.   

205 x 298 mm    8 1/16 x 11 ¾ inches