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Rijnsburg Abbey

Maker

(artist)
1601-1653

Title

Rijnsburg Abbey

Date of Production

1639

Medium

black chalk, grey wash, graphite on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines

Dimensions

Height: 27.6 cm
Width: 27 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3355

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

The abbey at Rijnsburg in northern Holland was of great religious and cultural importance for over four hundred years. Filling the composition horizontally and vertically, the abbey retains a sense of its original stature here. The artist’s interest in the decaying building’s appearance is typical of seventeenth-century Dutch art. Details of sheep grazing, birds flying, plants growing and a lone figure walking offer hints of life. The building, though ruined, is not without signs of life.

Provenance

Anton Mensing, Amsterdam (1866-1936); his estate sale, Frederik Muller & Cie (Amsterdam), 24-28 April 1937, lot 793; purchased there by Colnaghi (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), 10 November 1940 (£8); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Special Display - Building and Destruction - Architectural Imagery from the Courtauld's Drawings Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/10/2009-17/01/2010

Landscapes in the Making: Dutch & Flemish 16-17th Century Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery, Tobu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 03/11/2000-24/12/2000; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Shizuoka, 02/02/2001-11/03/2001; Koriyama City Museum of Art, Koriyama, 17/03/2001-15/04/2001

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/09/1986-30/11/1986; The Drawing Center, New York, 08/04/1986-26/07/1986

Literature

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1986
cat. no. 66
ill. on p. 157

Eeghen, Christiaan P. van, 'Simon de Vlieger as a Draftsman, I: The Pen Drawings' in 'Master Drawings', Spring 2006 - pp. 3-47; 44, 1
p. 12

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Verso: upper left corner, brown ink: "16:-"; upper left edge, brown ink: "Abdye van Rhynsbúrg"; lower left, graphite: "3783/"; lower left corner, graphite: "/c."; lower left corner, brown ink: "S. de VLieger"; lower left corner, graphite: "CIII"; lower right edge, graphite: "LG. TR/-/- 2.0 2/0".

Collector's mark: Verso: lower left, stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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