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Rocks in front of grotesque heads

Maker

Workshop of
(artist)
1565-1629

Title

Date of Production

1600 - 1699

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash on laid paper, with framing lines in brown ink, graphite and gold

Dimensions

Height: 20.4 cm
Width: 16.6 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.4439

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

Concealing faces in rocks, thereby uniting the fantastical and the real world, has been a longstanding practice in the graphic arts. This imaginative study excels in inscribing more than twenty highly expressive heads of humans and animals in four lumps of stone. Artfully conceived, the sheet demonstrates De Gheyn’s exceptional powers of invention. However, the composition lacks the verve of his skilful handling of the quill pen. It was probably executed in the master’s workshop, possibly by his son the engraver Jacques de Gheyn III (around 1596-1641).

Provenance

Jan Pietersz. Zomer, Amsterdam (1641-1724) [his handwriting on verso and identified by Plomp 1997, p. 20 in Zomer's inventory catalogue]; Ewer (?); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Dutch drawings from the Witt Collection: Part 2: Other than landscape, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1976-77 (Nov.-Feb.)

Between Renaissance and Baroque: European Art 1520-1600, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1965

Literature

G.L. Conran, Between Renaissance and Baroque: European Art 1520-1600, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1965
cat. no. 306

Dutch drawings from the Witt Collection: Part 2: Other than landscape, Courtauld Gallery, London, November 1976 - Febr
cat. no. 11

Reznicek, E.K.J., Reviewed Work: Jacques de Gheyn Three Generations, 3 vols. by I.Q. Van 'Regteren Altena' in 'Oud Holland', 1988 - pp. 78-87; 102
pp. 85-86 ...More

Stampfle, Felice, Netherlandish drawings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and Flemish drawings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York 1991
p. 37 under no. 63

Plomp, Michiel, 'Jan Pietersz. Zomer's inscriptions on drawings', Delineavit et Sculpsit, 17, March 1997, pp. 13-27
pp. 20-21, 27 note 43

Swan, Claudia, Art, Science, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Holland, Cambridge University Press 2005
p. 26
fig. 13 on p. 25 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Recto, right centre edge, fragment: lower half of a shield containing a fleur-de-lis, above a "4" above a "W".

Inscription: Verso: centre, red chalk, Zomer's hand: "Dits Is Iets Wonderlijx" [“this is something wonderful”]; centre, graphite: "14 1/4 x 12 1/8"; lower right, graphite: "7/6/"; lower centre edge, graphite, Zomer's hand: "dese 2. blaatjes met Troonities f30-:-" ["these 2 little sheets with heads"].

Collector's mark: none.

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