Lot 108: JACOB VAN DER ULFT GORINCHEM 1627 - 1689 NOORDWIJK

pen and brown ink and wash over some traces of black chalk, within brown ink framing lines
Inv.nr. N 81

118 by 208 mm.

The Hague 2001, cat. no. 56a

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 example 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. Two other depictions of this subject by van der Ulft are known. One, inscribed and dated 1675, was sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 25 April 1983, lot 34. The other, in the Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig (inv. no. NI 489) shows only the round building to the right.