Lot 61: *Francois Ryckhals (1600-1647)

*Francois Ryckhals (1600-1647)
landscape with cattle and two figures.
Bears old attribution on the verso: P.Potter.
Black chalk. Made up across the top.
85 by 200mm.
While Ryckhals is relatively little-known today, in the years around 1630 he was an influential landscape draughtsman. His style, itself much affected by the work of Willem Buytewech, was admired and emulated by the
young Herman Saftleven and also by Aelbert Cuyp, alongside whom he worked in Dordrecht in 1633-4. A very similarly executed drawing of a group of shepherds on a hillock is in the Uffizi (see H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, IV, Kunstler um Jan van Goyen, Doornspijk 1991, p.366, cat.1041 A5, illus.)
We are grateful to Dr. Beck for kindly confirming the attribution.