Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey wash; later additions in watercolour; framing line in dark-brown ink
height 95 mm × width 151 mm
Josua de Grave
Maastricht, 1670
pen and brown ink, with grey wash; later additions in watercolour; framing line in dark-brown ink
height 95 mm × width 151 mm
signed, inscribed and dated by the artist, in brown ink: lower right, J: De Grave: fecit; upper right, De Vrouwenkerck Tot Maastricht : 1670:
inscribed on verso: lower left, in graphite, 3106
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
watermark: coat of arms ? (fragment)
Possibly slightly trimmed at the bottom
…; ? collection Ernst Sigmond Bijtelaar (1850-?), Amsterdam;1 …; collection A. de Kater (?-?), Amsterdam; from whom, fl. 40, to the museum (L. 2228), 1946
Object number: RP-T-1946-63
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 1643.2 De Grave had three brothers and two sisters.3 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,4 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),5 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.6 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).7 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.8 The newlyweds moved from Maastricht to The Hague, joining De Grave’s sister and his brother, Cornelis, who had moved there already.9 After each military campaign, De Grave returned to The Hague, where he settled permanently after the last campaign in 1676 and died in July 1712.10 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.11 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
In this view of Maastricht, De Grave focussed on the city walls, which were erected in the 1500s. The walls were the subject of continuous reinforcements to prevent future invasions. Today, only a few fragments are intact. The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) is represented behind the row of houses. Built in a Romanesque style, the church features two ‘koortorens’ on either end of the choir, a rare type of tower found only in the Rijnland region. Unusual is the addition of a small vignette of an unidentified landscape at upper left, a feature not found in other drawings attributed to the artist.
The gate with the two little towers depicted at far left was the smallest entrance into Maastricht. It was built by the chapter of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk for the clergymen to leave the city and stroll along the river; only they had a set of keys. Maastricht citizens had to use the gate further to the south.12
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), no. 195; J.M.C Bruijnzeels et al., Momentopnamen langs de Maas. Topografische tekenkunst uit Limburg, 1600-1800, exh. cat. Venlo (Goltziusmuseum) 1989, no. 65
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Josua de Grave, View of the Walls of Maastricht with the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in the Background, Maastricht, 1670', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51811
(accessed 10 November 2024 18:37:09).