watermark: foolscap; cf. Laurentius 2007, II, nos. 441 (1663) and 450 (1664)

…; ? with the dealer Willem Gruijter, Jr (1817-80), Amsterdam;¹¹According to the catalogue for the sale Pitcairn Knowles, Amsterdam, 25 June 1895, no. 296. ? his sale, Paris (Delbergue), 9 December 1861 sqq., no. 158; …; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895 sqq., no. 296, fl. 64, to the dealer C.F. Roos, Amsterdam;²²Copy RKD. ...; from the Vereniging Rembrandt, fl. 74, to the museum (L. 2228), 1899

Object number: RP-T-1899-A-4255

Using Dutch paper, Hackaert drew the present sheet apparently after his return to Amsterdam in 1658. The watermark points to a date in the 1660s. Stylistically, it is characterized by more jagged and star-shaped shorthand forms than in inv. no. RP-T-1884-A-341, especially in the foreground, with fewer loop-like marks for vegetation. Related drawings include a Wooded Mountain Landscape in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. no. Q+ 070).³³M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, no. 186.

As in Hackaert’s other Italianate landscape drawings, the choice of brown ink and grey wash creates a warm and luminous effect in the present sheet, a perfect combination for rendering southern scenery. Moreover, to create an illusion of depth, equal to painted aerial perspective, Hackaert did not outline the distant background with brown ink, letting the graphite underdrawing evoke a sense of haziness.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

L.C.J. Frerichs, Berchem en de Bentgenoten in Italië, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1970, no. 103; A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), I, p. 264, under no. 408 (n. 3)

A. Stefes, 2019, 'Jan Hackaert, Mountain Landscape with a Castle Overlooking a River, Amsterdam, c. 1660 - c. 1665', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200140168