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Landscape with a church service in a grotto

Maker

After
(artist)
1568-1625

Formerly attributed to
Pieter Schoubroeck (artist)
1570-1607

Title

Date of Production

1585 - 1607

Medium

pen and grey ink, grey wash on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines partly trimmed away

Dimensions

Height: 25.6 cm
Width: 40.1 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.4173

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

Notes

Set against a densely wooded mountain landscape, a forest clearing is used as a place of worship. Three natural alcoves are depicted in the drawing, the leftmost filled with an altar, triptych and other painted images of devotion. There, a holy mass is in progress, with several kneeling pilgrims. In the centre of the composition, an eremite guides a traveller, who has left his horse with his servant, to the religious service. In the lower right corner, two further pilgrims arrive at the sanctuary’s main gate, where one also finds a stable. The drawing derives from a painting attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) in the Pinacoteca of Brera, Milan.

Provenance

Jacob Herman Jan Mellaert (1875-1972), London; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d. (£20); Witt Bequest 1952

Literature

Het vroege landschap, Stedelijk Museum, 1966-67
p. 36, under no. 63

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 129

Inscriptions

Watermark: none.

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

Inscription: Verso: centre, graphite, unclear: "n[or A?]5."; lower left, graphite, Witt number: "4173"; lower right, graphite: "Open / #11"; lower right edge, graphite, circled: "34".

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