Landscape with Huis Kluys, near Brussels

Brussels, 1674

Object data

pen and brown ink, with grey wash; later additions in watercolour; framing line in brown ink

height 134 mm × width 211 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed: lower right, in brown ink, with the mark of Esdaile (L. 2617)
inscribed on verso: centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in graphite, De Kluys bij Brussel 1674 / Josua de Grave –; lower left, in graphite, N10522; next to that, with an unknown collector’s mark, in graphite; lower left, by Goll von Franckenstein, in brown ink, N 2552 (L. 2987); below that and at lower centre, by Esdaile, in brown ink, 1833 40x [i.e. his price paid of 40 guineas in 1833] and from the colln of M de Vos and J de Grave
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: foolscap

Condition

Several repairs throughout the sheet

Provenance

…; collection Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-1785), Amsterdam and Velzen (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam and Velzen; his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam and Velzen; ? his sale, Amsterdam (De Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq., Album HH, with inv. no. RP-T-1905-64 in no. 24, as Valentijn Klotz (‘Twee stuks Watergezigtjes met gebouwen. Met de pen en o.i. inkt, door v. klotz’), fl. 9 for both, to A. Brondgeest, Amsterdam;¹…; collection Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album DDD as Valentijn Klotz (‘Ingekleurde landschappen, door oude Nederlandsche Meesters, als: […] V. Klotz, welke bij nummers, van NO. 1 tot 32, zullen worden geveild’), fl. 61:50:- for the whole album;² …; collection William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (L. 2617); his sale, London (Christie’s), 18 June 1840 sqq., with inv. no. RP-T-1905-64 in no. 965 (‘J. de Grave. A pair of views of a chateau; in water colours; and two sketches’), with three other drawings, fl. 4 for all, to ‘Tiffin’;³ …; collection René Jacques della Faille de Waerloos (1830-1902), Antwerp; his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 19 January 1904, no. 140, fl. 40, with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, to the museum (L. 2228), 1905

Object number: RP-T-1905-65

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

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 1643.⁴ De Grave had three brothers and two sisters.⁵ 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,⁶ 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),⁷ 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.⁸ 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).⁹ 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.¹⁰ The newlyweds moved from Maastricht to The Hague, joining De Grave’s sister and his brother, Cornelis, who had moved there already.¹¹ After each military campaign, De Grave returned to The Hague, where he settled permanently after the last campaign in 1676 and died in July 1712.¹² 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.¹³ 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

In 1674, the Dutch army, under the command of Stadholder Prince Willem III of Orange (1650-1702), was stationed around Brussels. According to inscriptions on the present sheet and on inv. no. RP-T-1905-64, both drawings depict Huis Kluys, a manor house near Brussels, but no information was found on this property. The drawings record the building from opposite angles and were probably made during the same drawing session.

They were initially attributed to Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1712), but might have been attributed to De Grave when they entered the collection of William Esdaile (1758-1837): in his 1840 sale, they were sold as drawings by De Grave.¹⁴ Indeed, the rendering of the trees, outlining the stems and branches and scribbling in the leaves using cloud-like shapes, is typical of De Grave’s style.

Both drawings seem to have been coloured by the same hand, unlikely to be that of the original artist. This was possibly done in the eighteenth century. Both sheets belonged consecutively to Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-1785) – in whose collection they were inventoried under the same number – possibly Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), William Esdaile (1758-1837) and René Jacques della Faille de Waerloos (1830-1902). The first mention of the coloured washes appeared in the sale catalogue of William Esdaile, but the colours might have been added at an earlier date.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

Literature

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. 414 (as Josua de Grave)

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'attributed to Josua de Grave, Landscape with Huis Kluys, near Brussels, Brussels, 1674', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51803

(accessed 23 November 2024 12:48:48).