Lot 595: JACOB VAN DER ULFT

JACOB VAN DER ULFT GORINCHEM 1627 - 1689 NOORDWIJK FIGURES RESTING IN AN ITALIANATE LANDSCAPE Pen and brown ink and wash, within a drawn circle; signed and dated in lower corners: Jac vander Ulft Fe: 1686 169 by 170 mm; 6 3/4 by 6 3/4 in

Sale, London, Christie's South Kensington, 12 December 2003, lot 523 (one of a pair)

Despite an inscription on the title page of an album of 58 Italian views by Van der Ulft now in the Institut Néerlandais, Paris, noting that these drawings were made from life in 1674 or 1675, it seems that in reality Van der Ulft never went to Italy; the drawings are in fact based on others by Jan de Bisschop, to whose studio contents Van der Ulft appears to have had access after De Bisschop's death in 1671. The fact that even De Bisschop probably never went to Italy makes the 'naar het leven' claim for Van der Ulft's Italian views even more far-fetched, but his drawings such as this are nonetheless extremely redolent of the light and atmosphere of Italy, and are fine examples of the powerful impact that the south had on the drawings of so many 17th-century Dutch artists. See also lot 616.