Rijksmuseum

Object data

black chalk; verso: brown ink

height 282 mm × width 188 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso, in brown ink: Aan Sr Harmanus / Saftleven wonende / achter Sinte Pijeter tot / Uuitrecht / porl (?)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Provenance

…; collection A.M. Jolles-van Loo; from whom, EUR 3500, to the museum (L. 2228), 2019

Object number: RP-T-2019-423

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

This drawing is an almost exact copy by Cornelis Saftleven of his drawing of 1662, also in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-1989-104). The drawing was folded up and sent by him as a letter to his brother, Herman Saftleven (1609-1685), whose address is added in brown ink on the verso of the sheet.¹ The brothers are known to have collaborated on a few occasions, for example in a painting in the Maida and George Abrams collection, Boston, Sleeping Hunter in a Landscape, which is signed and dated ‘Saft Levens 1642’.² The same collection preserves a drawn study of the sleeping hunter by Cornelis for the picture.³ It is thought that Cornelis sent the present study of a seated figure to Herman – who was more talented as a landscapist – so he could use it in one of his paintings.⁴

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

Literature

A. Zwollo, "Een 'Cornelis Saftleven' per brief", Nederlands Historisch Jaarboek 38 (1987), pp. 402-06

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'Cornelis Saftleven, _, c. 1662', in J. Turner (ed.), _(under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200764244

(accessed 13 December 2025 01:45:09).

Seated Man with a Pipe