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Gallery Text

The fluency, verve, and control with which Goltzius wielded his pen is exquisitely manifest in this signed and dated study. While the architectural elements are composed of regular parallel hatches, the seated woman is rendered using dense curving strokes, which skillfully describe the undulating folds of her dress. Her twisting torso and refined hand gestures further add to the sense of overt elegance that this drawing exudes. Although the specific subject of the composition remains unidentified, the overgrown ancient structures in the background and the attributes scattered in the foreground—a pen case, an inkwell, and an open book—recall contemporary representations of Clio, the Muse of History. Produced not long after Goltzius returned to Haarlem from his yearlong stay in Italy, this drawing also records the artist’s productive engagement with the Venetian artistic tradition, most notably the broad and fluid manner encountered in woodcuts and drawings by Titian.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2020.290
People
Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch (Mühlbracht 1558 - 1617 Haarlem, Netherlands)
Title
Seated Woman
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Allegorical Female Figure
Former Title: An Allegory of Learning
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1596
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/183478

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown and black ink and white opaque watercolor on blue paper
Dimensions
21.2 x 12.8 cm (8 3/8 x 5 1/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: center left, brown ink: HG (in ligature)
  • inscription: lower left, brown ink: 1596
  • inscription: verso, upper left, brown ink: stley[?]
  • inscription: verso, lower right, graphite: Le Parmesan / 4
  • watermark: None
  • collector's mark: lower left, blue stamp: CICERI (Pierre-Luc Charles Cicéri or Eugène Cicéri, Lugt 446)
  • collector's mark: lower center, black ink stamp: CHS. (Charles Saunier, Lugt 567a)
  • collector's mark: verso, bottom center, blue ink: M/G [inside of] A [Lugt 3306, mark of Maida and George Abrams]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Pierre-Luc Charles Cicéri or Eugène Cicéri, Paris (Lugt 446). Charles Saunier (1865-1941), Paris and Lozère sur Yvette (Lugt 567a). [1] J. Hohl-Schmuziger, Basel. Reinhold D. Hohl (1929-2014), Basel, by 1961. [2] Sold [through Christie's, New York, January 30, 1997, lot 222]. Sold [through Sotheby's, Amsterdam, November 9, 1999, lot 43]. [Derek Johns, Ltd., London], sold; to Maida and George Abrams, Boston (Lugt 3306), 2000, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2020

Notes
[1] According to Lugt, the drawings from Saunier's collection were dispersed after his death in 1941 and there was no public sale.

[2] Hohl is listed as the owner in "Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius" (1961)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gift of George Abrams in honor of Gerdien Verschoor, Director of CODART (2005-2019)
Accession Year
2020
Object Number
2020.290
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Emil Karel Josef Reznicek, Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius, Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert (Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1961), vol. 1, pp. 304-5, cat. no. 164, vol. 2, fig. no. 256
  • Emil Karel Josef Reznicek, "Drawings by Hendrick Goltzius, Thirty Years Later: Supplement to the 1961...", Master Drawings (Autumn 1993), vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 215-278, p. 266, under K430a
  • Old Master Drawings, auct. cat., Christie's, New York (New York, January 30, 1997), pp. 250-251, lot 222, repr. p. 251
  • William W. Robinson, Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), pp. 70-71, cat. no. 23, repr. p. 71
  • Walter Melion, The Meditative Art: Studies in the Northern Devotional Print, 1550-1625 (Philadelphia, PA, 2009), p. 296, repr. as plate 7.6 on p. 311

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Dutch, Flemish, & Netherlandish Drawings

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu