watermark: Arms of Amsterdam; cf. Heawood, nos. 429 (1665) or 430 (1662); Laurentius, II, no. 177 (1665)

...; sale, Isaac Walraven (1686-1765, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (Yver et al.), 14 October 1765 sqq., Album I, no. 501, with one other drawing, fl. 96, to Koch;¹¹Copy RKD. ...; collection Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), Amsterdam;²²According to the catalogue for the sale, William Pitcairn Knowles, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895 sqq., no. 549. ? his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album C, no. 24, fl. 151, to the dealer J. de Vries, Amsterdam;³³Copy RKD. from whom purchased by Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78), Amsterdam (L. 1450);⁴⁴Cf. L. 1450. his widow, Abrahamina Henrietta de Vos-Wurfbain (1808-83), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 448, fl. 41, to William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643);⁵⁵Copy RKD. his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895 sqq., p. 72, no. 549, fl. 10, to the dealer F. Muller, Amsterdam;⁶⁶Copy RKD. …; from the Vereniging Rembrandt, fl. 18, to the museum (L. 2228), 1902
 

Object number: RP-T-1902-A-4555

Like many of his fellow-Italianates, decades after Willem Romeyn’s return to the Netherlands, he exploited the southern motifs that he had recorded while in Italy, meeting collectors’ demands for sunlit pastorals and foreign sceneries. Unfortunately, many of the drawings he made on the spot are either lost or have yet to be identified. In the present case, however, a corresponding earlier version on Italian paper is preserved in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-283).⁷⁷P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 151, fig. F. Although a finished composition, including staffage, the Leiden drawing may nevertheless have been drawn on the spot, with only the final touches added in the studio. It is considerably larger (290 x 439 mm) and is rendered in more detail, making the present sheet seem rather routinely executed. The staffage of the Leiden sheet consists of a shepherd couple with their dog, goat and three sheep broadly scattered over a vast field. By contrast, in the present drawing, cattle and a more picturesque couple, the typical staffage of Romeyn’s mature works, are more closely grouped. The present drawing’s wider perspective – with the Tiber Island visible at left – suggests that the Leiden version was trimmed along its left edge. Another discrepancy is the presence of fishing nets left drying along the pier in the Leiden composition,⁸⁸For the identification of these rope-like structures as fishing nets and the bridge-like structure as a fishers’ pier, see J. Schaeps in idem and J. van der Veen (eds.), Leiden viert feest! Hoogtepunten uit een academische collectie, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014-15, p. 93. Earlier, this site was identified as the Ponte Rotto. which were apparently considered unnecessary for the later iteration. Changed into a brownish tone, they bear witness to a failed attempt to have them effaced.

The same view was recorded by Daniël Schellinks (1727-1701), probably also in situ, in a sheet in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 10028),⁹⁹M. Bisanz-Prakken, Drawings from the Albertina: Landscape in the Age of Rembrandt, exh. cat. New York (Drawing Center)/Fort Worth (Kimbell Art Museum) 1995, no. 91. which served as a model for a painting by Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), also preserved in Vienna, in the Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste (inv. no. GG-711).¹⁰¹⁰P.C. Sutton, with J. Bikker, Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), exh. cat. Greenwich (CT) (Bruce Museum)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2006-07, p. 177, fig. 1 and no. 28.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 149, fig. D; J. Schaeps and J. van der Veen (eds.), Leiden viert feest! Hoogtepunten uit een academische collectie, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014-15, p. 93, fig. 36a

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Willem Romeyn, View on the Banks of the Tiber, Haarlem, 1666', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143715