Object data
black chalk, with grey wash; framing line in brown ink
height 168 mm × width 128 mm
Cornelis Saftleven
Seated Boy Wearing a Hat, Seen from the Back
1617 - 1681
Inscriptions
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monogrammed: lower left, in black chalk, CSL
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inscribed on verso: lower left corner, in brown ink, in an eighteenth or a nineteenth-century hand, 1488 (or 1988.?); above that, in pencil, _e _
Technical notes
watermark: none
Provenance
…; collection Carel Vosmaer (1826-88), The Hague;1 his son, Prof. Dr Gualtherus Carel Jacob Vosmaer (1854-1916), Leiden; his son, C.J.J.G. Vosmaer (1907-86), Leiden; his heirs; from whom, fl. 650,000, with 212 other drawings, to the museum (L. 2228), with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum Stichting and the De Ster Holding BV, 1989
Object number: RP-T-1989-105
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum Stichting and the De Ster Holding BV
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
In 1989, the Rijksmuseum purchased six figure drawings by Saftleven, part of a large group from the heirs of the eighteenth-century collector Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888). They span the artist’s career, and except for one drawing, they are all signed and dated (1634, 1636, 1651, 1656 and 1662, respectively).2
The use of grey wash in this figure turning his back to the viewer is somewhat unusual in Saftleven’s figure drawings, which he most often drew primarily with chalk. The motif of a peasant seated on a stool with his back turned to the viewer was used by the artist in several of his paintings, for example in _ Drinking Company outside a Tavern_ in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (inv. no. NM 693)) and in a Landscape with Farmers, formerly on the art market.3 Furthermore, Saftleven used the motif in a print (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-15.754), part of a series of peasants.4
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Literature
J.F. Heijbroek (ed.), De verzameling van mr. Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1989, no. 24
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Cornelis Saftleven, Seated Boy Wearing a Hat, Seen from the Back, 1617 - 1681', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143931
(accessed 13 December 2025 01:45:05).