Lot 164: Josua de Grave (1640/5-1712)

A view near Maastricht ( recto ); A sketch of a village ( verso ) signed 'Jos—a De Grave:', inscribed and dated 'Bij mastricht 1671.7:m:/6:d [6 July 1671]' pen and brown ink, grey wash, fragmentary foolscap watermark 51/4 x 8 in. (132 x 205 mm.) NOTES De Grave stopped in Maastricht in mid-1669 on his return from a trip to France and stayed there till the end of 1671. From these two years about sixty drawings of Maastricht and its surroundings are extant. A drawing of Maastricht dated 9 September 1671 is in a private collection in Amsterdam, J. Giltay, Le cabinet d'un amateur, Dessins flamands et hollandais des XVIe et XVIIe siŠcles d'une collection priv‚e d'Amsterdam, exhib. cat., Rotterdam, Boymans-van Beuningen Museum and elsewhere, 1976, no. 70, pl. 60. A drawing of Chantilly of 1668, dated in the same way as the present sheet, was sold at Christie's New York, 30 January 1998, lot 370. De Grave enrolled in the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem in 1659. His style is often confused with that of Valentin Klotz (c.1650-after 1718) whom he met in Maastricht. Both were officers in the Dutch army and participated as draughtsmen to the campaigns of 1672-6 led by William III against the French (see lot 96). In 1671 Maastricht was not part of Holland but of the Spanish Low Countries, and was to be invaded by the French in May 1672.