watermark: none

…; collection Carel Vosmaer (1826-88), The Hague;¹¹J.F. Heijbroek (ed.), De verzameling van mr. Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1989, no. 24. his son, Prof. Dr Gualtherus Carel Jacob Vosmaer (1854-1916), Leiden; his son, C.J.J.G. Vosmaer (1907-86), Leiden; his heirs; from whom, fl. 650,000, with 212 other drawings, to the museum (L. 2228), with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum Stichting and the De Ster Holding BV

Object number: RP-T-1989-101

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum Stichting and the De Ster Holding BV

Of the approximately five hundred known drawings by Cornelis Saftleven, close to two hundred are studies of human figures. The Rijksmuseum collection holds sixteen of these sheets, made between 1634 and 1665, which give a fairly complete picture of Saftleven's figural draughtsmanship. The models are recorded in varying poses and drawn on different types of support, sometimes toned, sometimes coloured. The drawings range from very swift sketches to more detailed studies.

All the drawings are made with black chalk; those on coloured paper are heightened with opaque white watercolour or white chalk. The Seated Boy with a Hat (inv. no. RP-T-1989-105) is the only one finished with grey wash. The earliest dated study in the Rijksmuseum, the Seated Woman, Facing Left of 1634 (inv. no. RP-T-1989-100) and a later sheet dated 1665, Seated Boy with a Flute (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4570), are among the most monumental of the Rijksmuseum figure studies.

The goal of Saftleven's prolific output is unclear: in only a few cases can the figures be linked to his painted oeuvre. He may have sold his studies to other artists, and he certainly also drew figures for his talented landscapist brother Herman (1609-1685), who used them in his paintings. The Rijksmuseum’s collection includes two versions of a Seated Man with a Pipe (inv. nos. RP-T-1989-104 and RP-T-2019-423). Cornelis sent the latter sheet to his brother via post, probably so he could incorporate the figure in one of his compositions.²²A. Zwollo, ‘Een ‘Cornelis Saftleven’ per brief’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 38 (1987), pp. 402-06.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

In 1989, the Rijksmuseum purchased six figure drawings by Cornelis Saftleven, part of a large group from the heirs of the eighteenth-century collector Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888). They span the artist’s career, and except for one drawing, they are all signed and dated (1634, 1636, 1651, 1656 and 1662, respectively).¹⁰¹⁰J.F. Heijbroek (ed.), De verzameling van mr. Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1989, p. 69.

The figure in the present sheet casually sits on his stool, lighting a pipe from a pan of hot coals. A waft of thin smoke rises up from his mouth into the air, adding liveliness to the drawing. Saftleven depicted smokers in a couple of his drawings, for example on fol. 4 of the Abrams Album, a seventeenth-century album amicorum in the collection of the Harvard University Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA (inv. no. 1999.123.1-53),¹¹¹¹W.W. Robinson, ‘The Abrams Album: An Album Amicorum of Dutch Drawings from the Seventeenth Century’, Master Drawings 53 (2015), no. 1, p. 56. and in a drawing dated 1631 in the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Hamburg (inv. no. 22474).¹²¹²A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), no. 909. He also depicted them in some of his peasant genre paintings, such as Peasants Smoking and Drinking in a Barn with Devils Dancing Beyond, which was sold at Christie’s London in 1987.¹³¹³Sale, London (Christie’s), 10 April 1987, no. 7; later with Brod Gallery London.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

J.F. Heijbroek (ed.), De verzameling van mr. Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1989, pp. 64, 66, 69, no. 20 (ill.)

C. Mensing, 2020, 'Cornelis Saftleven, Seated Man Smoking, with a Coal Pan, 1636', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143917