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View of the River Arno in Florence, looking upstream, with fishermen and a river god

Maker

(artist)
1523-1605

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1578

Medium

black chalk, pen and brown ink, blue and brown wash, white bodycolour on laid paper, incised for transfer, with brown ink framing lines, the lower right half having been executed on a separate, irregularly-shaped piece of paper added to the sheet

Dimensions

Height: 20.1 cm
Width: 29 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1634

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

After establishing himself in Florence, Flemish painter Stradanus was commissioned from 1561-1577 to design a series of 28 tapestries for Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici’s villa at Poggio a Caiano. The lavish scenes of hunting, fowling, and fishing in the Arno River Valley were subsequently adapted into engravings, prepared by drawings. This example illustrates the technique of fishing in the shallows with square nets. In the foreground a personification of the Arno River is shown with the heraldic lion of Florence.

Notes

Around 1561, Stradanus was commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici to prepare designs for a series of 28 tapestries of hunting scenes to decorate his villa at Poggio a Caiano; several series of engravings were published after these designs. This scene was engraved for a 1580 series, published by Philips Galle, comprising 44 hunting subjects with a dedication to Cosimo de' Medici - this is plate 40.

Provenance

possibly Bernard Quaritch (London), in 1881 (if part of no. 3521 in his Catalogue of works on natural history, physics, mathematics, and other sciences offered for sale at the cash prices affixed, described as ‘Sixty original drawings by Stradanus, of Field Sports, Hunting Wild Animals, Fowling, Fishing &c.’) or 1890 (if part of no. 155 in his catalogue Exhibition of books and manuscripts, described as ‘Sixty original tinted Drawings by the painter Jan Stradanus’); possibly purchased there by William A. Baillie-Grohman, London and Tyrol (1851-1921), L.370; by descent to his wife; his estate sale, Sotheby’s (London), 14 May 1923, lot 162 (along with D.1952.RW.269, 281, 283, 1633 and 1635); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

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

Drawings Gallery Display - Renaissance Modern, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 22/04/2015-07/06/2015

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

Exhibition of paintings: seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish schools, loaned by the Trustees of the National Gallery, and drawings loaned by Sir Robert Witt, C.B.E. and Lady Witt., Hanley Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, 29/02/1928-26/05/1928; City of York Museum and Art Gallery, York, 01/06/1928-01/09/1928

Exhibition of Belgian and Flemish Art 1300-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1927 ...Less

Literature

Leesberg, Marjolein, The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, vol. 19, Johannes Stradanus, Oudekerk aan den Ijssel 2008
vol. III, p. 146, under no. 461

Goldner, George R., with Lee Hendrix and Gloria Williams, European Drawings 1. Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum, California 1988
p. 226 under no. 100

Flemish drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, October 1977- January 1978
cat. no. 6 ...More

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

Exhibition of paintings : seventeenth century dutch and flemish schools, loaned by the Trustees of the National Gallery, and drawings loaned by Sir Robert Witt, C.B.E. and Lady Witt., Hanley Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent and City of York Museum and Art Gallery, York, 1928, 1928
cat. no. 32

Exhibition of Belgian and Flemish Art 1300-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1927, 1927
cat. no. 552 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: lower centre, on separate added paper: simple shield surmounted by a tall cross (per Peter Bower, the original drawing is on the same paper as RW.269, 281, 283 and 1635).

Inscription: Recto: lower right corner, brown ink, signed by the artist: "Strada".

Collector's mark: Removed and now mounted with the drawing, both stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b); William A. Baillie-Grohman (L.370).

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