Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over traces of graphite
height 103 mm × width 158 mm
Josua de Grave
Genappe, 1674
pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over traces of graphite
height 103 mm × width 158 mm
signed, inscribed and dated by the artist, in brown ink: lower left, J: De Grave: fecit; upper right, Genap: 1674:8:m: /13:d: (exact date expressed as a fraction, month over day)
inscribed on verso: upper left, in graphite, in a nineteenth-century hand, Twee dagen na den slag / van […] emel door Kapitein Josua de Grave / geteekend; below that, in graphite, A
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
watermark: foolscap (fragment)
…; from F. Muller (Amsterdam), fl. 15.15, to the museum (L. 2228), 1890
Object number: RP-T-1890-A-2272
Copyright: Public domain
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 1643.1 De Grave had three brothers and two sisters.2 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,3 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),4 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.5 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).6 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.7 The newlyweds moved from Maastricht to The Hague, joining De Grave’s sister and his brother, Cornelis, who had moved there already.8 After each military campaign, De Grave returned to The Hague, where he settled permanently after the last campaign in 1676 and died in July 1712.9 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.10 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
De Grave drew this view of Genappe (Genepiën), in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, two days after the Battle of Seneffe (11 August 1674), one of the many battles fought during the Franco-Dutch War (1672–78). De Grave travelled as an independent draughtsman with the Dutch army, and he probably passed through Genappe, located nineteen kilometres north-east of Seneffe, on his way further north. The sight of this quaint little village must have been a great contrast to the things he had witnessed on the battlefield, where both sides suffered heavy losses. Curiously, however, De Grave never drew these battle scenes.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
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. 145-92, no. 442
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Josua de Grave, View of Genappe (Genepiën), Walloon Brabant, Genappe, 1674-08-13', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51808
(accessed 13 November 2024 20:36:21).