watermark: letters, IHS within an oval frame, surmounted by a Latin cross; cf. Heawood, nos. 2975-76 (Italy)

…; Baron Frederik Carel Theodoor van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburch (1784-1865), Kasteel De Cannenburch, Vaassen (L. 1407); inherited by Franciscus Johannes Hallo (1808-79), Kasteel De Cannenburch, Vaassen;¹¹Gelders Archief, 0407 Huis De Cannenburg, inv. no. 398. sold through the mediation of the dealers A.E. Cohen and M. Wolff (L. 2610); his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos and C.F. Roos, jr), 18 December 1879, no. 146, fl. 1, to the dealer H.J. Valk, Amsterdam, for the museum (L. 2228)

Object number: RP-T-1879-A-60

From circa 1660 onwards, Willem Romeyn signed his name with capital letters.²²P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 150. Since the signature on the present drawing appears in upper- and lower-case script, it must be earlier. Among drawings with a similar signature is one depicting the Colosseum, in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (inv. no. KK 5331). The watermark on the paper of the Rijksmuseum drawing is of a type used in Italy, so it may have been drawn while the artist was in Rome. This would make it one of his earliest known works. There is, however, always the possibility that Romeyn made it after his return from Italy in 1651, on paper he might have brought home from Italy.

One of the few drawings by Romeyn possibly done in Italy, View of the Banks of the Tiber, in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-283), appears to be more densely textured and drawn over graphite, whereas the present sheet is dominated by its broadly applied wash over black chalk. This may be another argument against it being made on the spot. Moreover, the repoussoir of a shepherd with his flock resting next to a tree stump does not seem to have been added later. A close look at the staffage reveals two alternative solutions for positioning the shepherd’s staff – one chalk line is upright and the other with the club turned to the left. Such pentimenti illustrate the artist’s search for optimal forms.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Vereeuwigde Stad. Rome door Nederlanders getekend, 1500-1900, Amsterdam 1964, no. 58, fig. 47; L. Oehler, Rom in der Graphik des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts: Ein niederländischer Zeichnungsband der graphischen Sammlung Kassel und seiner Motive im Vergleich, Berlin 1997, pp. 129, 131, fig. 28.2; M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, p. 353, under no. 405; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, pp. 150, 210 (n. 21)

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Willem Romeyn, Roman Ruins with a Shepherd and a Flock of Sheep and Goats, Haarlem, c. 1652 - c. 1655', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143799