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Simeon holds the Christ Child in his arms

Maker

(artist)
1523-1605

Title

Date of Production

1540 - 1605

Medium

black and white chalk, pen and brown ink, reworking in pen and black-grey ink, brown wash, white bodycolour, on brown-prepared laid paper, framed by pen and brown ink in an oval, the whole sheet enclosed in brown ink framing lines partially trimmed away

Dimensions

Height: 17.3 cm
Width: 12.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1287

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This work belongs to a group of around thirty oval-shaped drawings of Biblical figures by Jan van der Straet. Probably intended as print designs, several of these were only engraved after the artist’s death.
In 1613, nineteen drawings and a title page were published in Antwerp by Theodoor Galle (1571-1633). Seven more were added when the series was republished, sometime after 1636, by Theodoor’s son Joannes Galle (1600-1676). This drawing, however, doesn’t seem to have reached the engraver; no related print is known.

Provenance

Frank Ernest Inggs, London (1885-1970); purchased from him by Colnaghi (London), 11 June 1935; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), 18 July 1935 (£2); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Traces: Renaissance Drawings for Flemish Prints, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/06/2022-25/09/2022

Flemish drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, October 1977-January 1978

Literature

Baroni Vannucci, Alessandra, Jan van der Straet detto Giovanni Stradano: flandrus pictor et inventor, Milan, 1997
no. 659
ill.

Boon, Karel G., The Netherlandish and German drawings of the XVth and XVIth centuries of the Frits Lugt Collection, Institut Néerlandais, Paris 1992
p. 356, note 15

Flemish drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, October 1977- January 1978
cat. no. 9 ...More

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 130 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Recto: right centre edge: fragment of a circle with a border (Peter Bower had no further information on this mark).

Inscription: Recto: upper right edge, brown ink: "Simeon" (not by the artist); lower centre edge, within pictorial area, brown ink, second line erased and now illegible, signed by the artist: "ioans Stradanus, Achademico di / [...]"; lower right edge, brown ink, signed by the artist: "Stradan".

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Scrap of paper detached from old mount, now kept separately from file, brown ink: alphabet (rubric) arranged on both sides of sheet in a vertical column from upper left, with letters A through Q. Upper edge: 'Stradan' written in pencil. Lower edge: 'No 4'. Possibly used as material for repairs.

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