View of the Great Cascade at Tivoli

Entry

In 1990, the present drawing was offered for sale as ‘attributed to Adriaen Honich’, based on the suggestion of Marcel Roethlisberger,¹ who published two articles on this still enigmatic artist.² Though not signed, the drawing fits in well in Honich’s oeuvre. Of the drawings traditionally attributed to the artist, four likewise represent scenes of the cascades at Tivoli: two drawings in the Frits Lugt collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. nos. 8004 and 1974_T.31);³ one in the Courtauld Gallery, London (inv. no. D.1952.RW.4008);⁴ and one in the Special Collections of the Library of the University of Leiden (inv. no. [PK-T-AW-544](
http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1278153)).⁵

Unlike the others, the present view of Tivoli is not drawn on grey paper, but the handling is similar. Like one of the Lugt drawings (inv. no. 8004), it features the same thin pen lines running parallel as if frozen, often interspersed with little dots, as well as the cauliflower-like outlines where the foaming water falls into its pool. There is even a comparable application of opaque white in these areas (though here it has partially oxidized). The main difference is in the use of the brush: Honich’s other views of Tivoli are dominated by the pen, though they have a similar painterly effect created by multi-coloured ink on a toned ground, in contrast to the present work’s range of greenish watercolour hues.

The present drawing was not done on the spot. As was first pointed out by Gerszi, it largely accords with a View of the Great Cascade at Tivoli in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 1911-507), done in the same pen and watercolour technique but on smaller scale (378 x 298 mm).⁶ According to Gerszi, the Budapest drawing, dated 1618 and monogrammed IB, is a copy by Jan Brueghel II (1601-1678) after a lost drawing by his father, Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625). The presumed original could also have served as the model for the present sheet, presumably executed in Italy, since it is done on Italian paper. The same original by Jan Brueghel I was probably also copied by a drawing, dated 5 dece f 1593, in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 20981).⁷

Annemarie Stefes, 2019