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View of Courtrai

Maker

(artist)
1631-1690

Title

View of Courtrai

Date of Production

1667

Medium

graphite, watercolour and some bodycolour on three sheets of laid paper joined together, with partial black ink framing lines trimmed away; the central sheet having been folded vertically at the centre; pinholes at irregular intervals along all edges and at corners; laid down

Dimensions

Height: 38.4 cm
Width: 129.4 cm

Accession Number

D.1958.WF.4661

Mode of Acquisition

Witt Fund, purchase, 1958

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This sweeping, large-scale panorama of Courtrai depicts the Flemish city on the eve of its capture by the French army. Louis XIV had commissioned van der Meulen to accompany his armies on campaigns to record the appearance of conquered towns or to depict glorious episodes of battle. The panoramic format not only expresses the conqueror’s power, but also reflects the function of this drawing: it served as a design for a tapestry (no longer extant) destined for the palace of Versailles.

Provenance

probably in the artist's studio at his death in 1690 [as recorded in 1690 inventory of Gobelins, published in Guiffrey 1892, p. 161, and see New York and London 1986, no. 12]; Sir Bruce S. Ingram, Chesham, Buckinghamshire (1877-1963); purchased from him by Colnaghi (London), 15 January 1958; purchased there by The Courtauld via the Witt Fund, 12 March 1958 (£220)

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Panorama, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 26/09/2015-10/01/2016

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 ...More

Mantegna to Cezanne - Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 24/02/1983-19/06/1983

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

Newly Acquired Drawings for the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1965-1966

Drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1958-59 ...Less

Literature

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1986
cat. no. 12
ill. on p. 49

Mantegna to Cezanne: Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 1983
cat. no. 49
ill. on p. 58

Flemish drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, October 1977- January 1978
cat. no. 76 ...More

Newly Acquired Drawings for the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1965-1966
cat. no. 37

Drawings from the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1958 - 1959
cat. no. 56

Guiffrey, Jules, Les manufactures parisiennes de tapisseries au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1892
p. 161
this drawing listed as 'Courtray, 17', related perhaps to the inscription on the verso of the drawing

Guiffrey, J., 'Van der Meulen', Nouvelles Archives de l'art français, 2nd series, vol. I, 1879, pp. 119ff
p. 128
undated memoir of the artist; listed as 'la ville de Courtrait colorée' ...Less

Inscriptions

Inscription: Verso (hidden under backing sheet, visible via transmitted light): along left edge, brown ink, written vertically: Courtray N^o 11 [this has been struck through] N^o53; upper left, graphite, a sum: 115 / 13 / [sum line] / 138 [or 158]; on each side of the fold of the central sheet, graphite: Courtray [with regard to inscriptions on drawings in the Louvre by van der Meulen, Frits Lugt made a distinction between three different hands. Besides the artist, who wrote in minuscule with pen, Hand A also scribbled his letters in lower case, though slightly larger, and Hand B wrote in large rounded letters in sanguine. The inscriptions on D.1958.WF.4661 are identifiable as Hand A. See Lugt 1949, vol. I, p. 81; New York and London 1986, no. 12].

Watermark: central sheet: left centre: Auvergne Circlet. Countermark: central sheet: right centre: B♥C (per Peter Bower, Benoit Columbier worked three mills in the Auvergne in the second half of the 16th century). Chain lines run horizontally on left and right sheets but vertically in central sheet.

Collector's mark: none.

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