Lot 177: Jan Victors (Amsterdam 1619-1676 East Indies)

Jan Victors (Amsterdam 1619-1676 East Indies) The Feast of Esther (recto); Portrait of a family on a terrace (verso) traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash (recto); black chalk, brown wash (verso), pen and brown ink framing lines 12 3/8 x 11 5/8 in. (31.5 x 29.5 cm.)

31.5 x 29.5 cm.

Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Tentoonstelling van teekeningen van Oud-Hollandsche meesters uit de verzameling Dr C. Hofstede de Groot, 1916, 3rd part, no. 113 (as Samuel van Hoogstraten).

W. Sumowski, 'Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seines Kreises im Kupferstichkabinett der Veste Coburg', Jahrbuch der Coburger Landesstiftung, 1963, p. 98. W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Pfalz, 1983, IV, p. 2597, under no. 1727. W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York, 1992, X, no. 2330xx. H. Bevers, 'Drawings by Jan Victors: The Shaping of an Oeuvre of a Rembrandt Pupil', Master Drawings, XLIX, no. 3, Autumn 2011, pp. 374 and 387, note 16 ('there is an untraced pen and brush drawing in the painterly, worked up style that is closely related to the Kassel painting in its composition and arrangement of figures').

Henri Duval, Liège; Frederick Muller et Cie, Amsterdam, 22 June 1910, lot 175 (as Samuel van Hoogstraten). Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930); C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, 4 November 1931, part of lot 318 ('13 Bl... Hoogstraten, Haman vor Ahasver und Esther'). Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 22 November 1974, lot 56 (unsold).

Although the drawing had traditionally been given to Samuel van Hoogstraten, Sumowski (1963, op. cit.) noted that it is related to a painting of the same subject by Jan Victors in the Gemäldegalerie, Kassel (Sumowski, op cit., 1983, no. 1727, illustrated p. 2626. It may be a preparatory idea, but Sumowski notes that Victors frequently revisited and reworked earlier compositons, and so it may be a later reinterpretation of the theme. Fig. 1. Jan Victors, The Feast of Esther, Kassel, Gemäldegalerie.