Lot 266: PAULUS CONSTANTIJN LA FARGUE THE HAGUE 1729 - 1782

signed and dated, upper left: P.C. la Fargue del 1771

pen and brown ink and wash over traces of black chalk, within brown ink framing lines
Inv.nr. N 192

173 by 276 mm.

Delft, Stedelijk Museum 'Het Prinsenhof', Er was eens... ; Ons land gezien door schilders in vroeger tijden, 1956, cat. no. 194;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, De verzameling van Bernard Houthakker, 1964, cat. no. 48;
Amsterdam/Dordrecht 1994-5, cat. no. 58

Charles Dumas, Haagse stadsgezichten 1550-1800; Topografische schilderijen van het Haags Historisch Museum, Zwolle 1991, p. 137 note 21

Johan Ægidiusz. van der Marck (1707-1772), his sale, Amsterdam, H. de Winter en J. Yver, 29 November 1773, kunstboek O, no. 1353, sold to Zonne for 4,10 guilders;
Possibly Daniel de Jongh;
Sale, Rotterdam, Gebr. Van Rijp, R. Muys en Van Leen, 26 March 1810, kunstboek S, no. 52, to Holstein for 4,10 guilders;
Possibly Hendrik Verdonk, Rotterdam;
Sale, Rotterdam, Gebr. Van Rijp en R. Muys, 30 September 1811, kunstboek F, no. 21;
Possibly Herman Gerlings, Haarlem;
Sale, Amsterdam, C.F. Roos & Cie, 2-3 October 1888, lot 33, sold to Pitcairn Knowles for 17 guilders;
William Pitcairn Knowles (L.2643), Rotterdam/Wiesbaden, his sale, Amsterdam, Fred. Muller, 25-26 June 1895, lot 380, sold to Langerhuizen for 10,- guilders (with two others);
Pieter Langerhuizen, Bussum, by whom sold, Amsterdam, Fred. Muller, 29 April-2 May 1919, lot 293, sold to Bernard Houthakker for 95 guilders;
Bernard Houthakker (L.1272), his sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 17-18 November 1975, lot 214

Although Paulus Constantijn la Fargue produced hundreds of drawings of townscapes and other topographical views, this is his only known drawing of a winter landscape, and one of only three depictions of similar subjects by the artist. The other two are both prints, one of which shows numerous figures, including the young Stadholder Willem V, on the ice at Rotterdam during the famous hard freeze of 1763 (see J. Sillevis, Door Holland met de trekschuit; een tocht langs Hollandse steden en dorpen met de 18e eeuwse kunstenaarsfamilie La Fargue, Utrecht/Alphen aan den Rijn 1976, reproduced fig. 14). A summer version of the same view by La Fargue, also dated 1771, is in the Gemeente Archief, Leiden (see Amsterdam/Dordrecht 1994-5, pp. 123-4, reproduced fig. 58.1).