Code: 10148
Dimensions:
MAERTEN VAN VALCKENBORCH Louvain 1534 -- 1612 Frankfurt am Main
A Study of Trees.
Pen and black ink and gray wash, heightened with white, and touched extensively with green watercolor, on brown paper. Peter Schatborn, Keeper Emeritus of the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, has confirmed the attribution of the drawing.
Van Valckenborch is one of the leading members of a family of Flemish artists. Although born in the Southern Netherlands, he like many other Protestants left the predominantly Catholic South for the Northern Netherlands or, in this case Aachen and Frankfurt am Main. He and his brother Lucas and Maerten’s son Frederick were instrumental in bringing Netherlandish art to Germany in the latter sixteenth and early seventeenth century.
His early career was divided between Malines and Antwerp. Antwerp at this time was arguably the intellectual and artistic center of northern Europe, home to a number of distinguished artists, such as the Sadeler Family, Bartholomeus Spranger, and the famous publishers Christopher Plantin and Jerome Cock.
Van Valckenborch’s principal interest was the depiction of landscape; his watercolors are particularly sensitive. One, now in the Amsterdam Historical Society is comparable to our drawing. The leaf forms, and the gently rising and falling movement of the landscape at the left are typical of the artist. Drawings by Maerten van Valckenborch are extremely rare; only six are known.
Sheet size: 215 x 233 mm. 8 ½ x 9 3/16 inches
