Imaginary Italianate Landscape with a Formal Garden Pond and Fountain

Inscriptions

signed, dated and inscribed by artist, in brown ink: lower left, Josua De Grave : inventor : 1689 7:m/27:d: (exact date expressed as a fraction, month over day); below that, in brown ink, 7 : voot :
inscribed on verso: lower left, in purple pencil, No 612; lower right, in pencil, -ne
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: Arms of Amsterdam (fragment)

Provenance

…; from the dealer H.J. Valk, Amsterdam, together with 3 other drawings, fl. 19 for all four, to the museum (L. 2228), 1895

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1895-A-3063

Context

After returning from his last military campaign with Stadholder Prince Willem III of Orange (1650-1702) in 1676, Josua de Grave settled permanently in The Hague.¹R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders: Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), p. 149. He continued to travel throughout the Netherlands and make topographical drawings, but he also began to produce paintings and drawings with imaginary Italianate landscapes and gardens, responding to the tastes of the day. The Rijksmuseum’s collection includes nine such drawings, most of which are signed and dated. Only three painted Italianate gardens are known: one was sold at Christie’s, London, in 2004,²Sale, London (Christie’s), 23 April 2004, no. 83. and two are at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (inv. nos. 1002030 and 1000889).

De Grave consistently signed this group of drawings Josua de Grave Inventor, perhaps intending to emphasize that these garden views were not of real sites but scenes from his imagination. Breithart suggested that most of the drawings in this group were not original inventions by De Grave but were based on prints or book illustrations. However, he mentioned only one direct relationship between a drawing depicting a View of the Serail of the Turkish Emporer in the collection of Chr. P. van Eeghen (1880-1968)³Currently in the collection of Ada Marius-Van Eeghen; L.C.J. Frerichs, De verzameling van Mr. Chr.P. van Eeghen. Nederlandse en buitenlandse tekeningen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1958, no. 31. and an engraved illustration of the palace of the Turkish emperor in Cornelis de Bruyn’s 1698 Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn: Door de vermaardste Deelen van Klein Asia.⁴M.H. Breitbarth-Van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz,’ Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), p. 109; Cornelis de Bruyn, Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn: Door de vermaardste Deelen van Klein Asia, Delft 1698, p. 54; https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bruy004reiz03_01/bruy004reiz03_01_0023.php#274, accessed 8 March 2021. However, while the buildings reveal some similarities, the comparison is rather weak. If De Grave based his drawing on the print, he did so only loosely. No other connections between his drawings and contemporary prints were found by the present author.

Carolyn Mensing, 2021

The artist

Biography

Josua de Grave (Amsterdam 1643 - The Hague 1712)

He was the son of the French merchant Claude Pietersz de Grave [Graeff] (c. 1597/98-after 1667) and Sara Bols (?-c. 1655) and was baptized in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, on 2 July 1643.⁵M.H. Breitbarth-Van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), p. 94. De Grave had three brothers and two sisters.⁶He also had a half-brother and sister from a previous marriage of his father; cf. Amsterdam, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, DTB 7, fol. 368. He grew up in Haarlem, where the family moved soon after his birth. In 1659, at age sixteen, he entered the Haarlem Guild of St Luke,⁷M.H. Breitbarth-Van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), p. 95; and B. Daems, Verbeeld land. De provincie Antwerpen in tekeningen, 1600-1900, Antwerp 2006, p. 48 (with the year given incorrectly as 1559). but it is unknown with whom he trained. Based on a drawing dated 1663, depicting a landscape in the vicinity of Paris, now in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 2480),⁸The drawing is inscribed bij Parijs tot Arcueil 1663 (‘near Paris on the way to Arcueil 1663’); cf. M.H. Breitbarth-Van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), p. 95. we know that he moved to Paris during or after his training. De Grave lived in Paris until 1668, after which he moved to Maastricht.

In Maastricht he likely met Barend Klotz (?-?) and Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721), two fellow draughtsmen affiliated with the Dutch army.⁹B. Daems, Verbeeld land. De provincie Antwerpen in tekeningen, 1600-1900, Antwerp 2006, p. 48. Barend Klotz was the only one to have held an official position in the army. In a notary act, dating from 17 February 1672 and signed in Bergen op Zoom, he is referred to as ‘Barnardus Clotz, adelborst onder de compagnie van d’heer capitein Harderwijk’; J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, p. 17. Until 1670, the trio resided in Maastricht, where they made around sixty drawings of the city and its surroundings. Only a handful of these drawings are signed (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-1946-63 and RP-T-1911-100).¹⁰M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), p. 97. In the following decades, the three artists accompanied the army of the Dutch States-General under the Stadholder Prince Willem III of Orange Nassau (1650-1702) on their various campaigns: to Bergen op Zoom (1671-early 1672), cities around the Dutch ‘waterlinie’ (1672) and various regions in the southern Netherlands and present-day Belgium (1674, 1675 and 1676).

On 3 December 1670, De Grave married Jenneton de Bisson (1645-?) in Maastricht.¹¹Ibid., p. 99. On 25 November 1671, De Grave changed his will, initially drawn up during his residence in Paris, to make Jenneton de Bisson his sole heir. This document was signed in Maastricht, which proves that he was still a resident there at that date; cf. R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), p. 149. The newlyweds moved from Maastricht to The Hague, joining De Grave’s sister and his brother, Cornelis, who had moved there already.¹²M.H. Breitbarth-Van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), p. 99. After each military campaign, De Grave returned to The Hague, where he settled permanently after the last campaign in 1676 and died in July 1712.¹³Ibid., pp. 107-12. On 25 July 1712, a payment is recorded for a funeral, so he probably died in the same month; cf. R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), p. 150. Several drawings dated between the 1670s and the 1710s record sights around the city. In the final years of his career, he also produced paintings and drawings of (Italianate) gardens and fantasy landscapes (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-00-148 and RP-T-1895-A-3063).

Josua de Grave often signed his work, using his full name or a variation, such as J. de Grave or Josua de Grave fecit. In many instances, he also included a location and a date. His signature is usually followed by a colon, then the year and the day and month (expressed as a fraction). His handwriting is quite distinct, using elegant, curly (capital) letters and a typical old-fashioned letter ‘e’. His drawings were initially quickly sketched in graphite or black chalk, after which he applied brown ink lines to further work out the composition. He seemed to have relied on a certain formula for most of his drawings, placing the horizon in the centre of the sheet and scattering the main elements around it. He often included trees, foliage or figures closer to the foreground, creating a repoussoir. De Grave drew his trees by outlining the trunks and branches, then scribbling in the leaves using cloud-like shapes.¹⁴M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), pp. 96-98; and J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, pp. 15-17. In most instances, in addition to the brown ink composition, grey washes are applied sparingly, particularly for the shadows on houses and roofs, foliage and simple cloud formations. Drawings that are more heavily washed are likely to have been worked up by (a) later hand(s).

Carolyn Mensing, 2019

References

R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), pp. 549-50; R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-55; M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), pp. 96-98; J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, pp. 15-18; G. Gordon, ‘Grave, Josua de’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XIII, pp. 323-24

Entry

The graphite orthogonal lines with which De Grave established the perspective of this composition are still visible. He finished the drawing with pen and brown ink and added grey wash. Blue-greenish washes were added to the water of the garden pond and spouting from its five fountain elements; the same hue can also be found in inv. no. RP-T-00-148. It is uncertain whether these were added by De Grave or by a later hand. If the latter were the case, both drawings might have been part of the same collection before they entered the Rijksmuseum’s collection at very different moments.

The present sheet and inv. nos. RP-T-1895-A-3060, RP-T-1895-A-3061, RP-T-1895-A-3062 and RP-T-00-148 include a number written with purple pencil on the verso. They might have been part of the same (private) collection or were sold in one lot at auction. Unfortunately, their whereabouts before they entered the Rijksmuseum’s collection could not be established.¹⁵With the exception of inv. no. RP-T-00-148, which was added to the collection in or after 1921, the drawings entered the collection in 1895 through the dealer H.J. Valk.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'Josua de Grave, Imaginary Italianate Landscape with a Formal Garden Pond and Fountain, 1689-07-27', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51968

(accessed 9 May 2025 17:46:45).