Catalogue entry no. 33 by Susan Anderson:
As Alice Davies discovered, this drawing stood for March in one of Allart van Everdingen’s many series of the Twelve Months. The use of a rough sea shows a preference for the stormier, earlier part of the month, as opposed to the warmer temperatures often associated with its more “lamblike” end. Such iconography was a departure from the more commonly used seasonal labors, but was not unique. Everdingen repeated this unconventional theme in a zodiac set sold in 1999 at Christie’s, London, in which March is a capriccio of Amsterdam viewed from the waters of the IJ. Precursor Jan van de Velde, especially, provided inspiration in several prints, including a representation of February as a sailboat under a stiff breeze outside Kampen on the Zuiderzee, and a depiction of March with a rainstorm and galelike winds. Everdingen’s second master, Pieter de Molijn, transformed the latter print into a black chalk drawing in Brussels. Everdingen also adopted Van de Velde’s habit of blending images of labor and leisure within a Twelve-Month series, especially with wintertime activities: the series to which March: Ships at Sea belongs depicts skaters and kolf players to represent January, whereas April shows spring plowing and sowing.
Davies initially recognized this monochrome wash series, now dispersed, by verso graphite inscriptions in the same hand, reading “no 42 Everdinge,” or variants thereof, in late seventeenth-century Dutch script on eight drawings previously considered independent landscapes of different seasons and outdoor activities. Each of these relatively large sheets measures approximately 158 × 208 mm, the same as three more drawings lacking the telltale inscriptions, but of similar enough media and iconography to fit within the series. To clinch the deal, she confirmed that the suite was from the same paper stock: among drawings where paper examination is possible, each sheet displays matching horizontal chain lines and spacing and, when visible, a foolscap watermark with double-lined PC countermark. Other Everdingen drawings bear inscriptions in the same hand with different numbers preceding the artist’s name, suggesting that the number 42 refers to the place this series occupied within an unknown collector’s filing system of albums or portfolios. Because March stands for Aries at the beginning of the zodiacal calendar, this drawing was presumably considered first in the group; the relatively substantial price inscribed on the verso, “f 42 10,” therefore likely belongs to the entire set from one of its many sales. The series probably last appeared as a whole in the 1777 sale of Nicolaas Nieuhoff under album Q in seven consecutive lots, each featuring either single or paired drawings. Thereafter, the individual drawings appear to have been dispersed, yet all but October are known today.
Everdingen’s drawings often elude precise dating, but his painted seascapes of the 1640s form his earliest body of work. A painting from this period in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia (Fig. 1), displays a generally analogous composition, although the boat faces a different direction. Given that the drawings constituting Everdingen’s series of the Months were not clearly related to paintings, however, the Harvard drawing must be considered only as a similarly conceived work and not necessarily from the same moment. The foolscap watermark is comparable to those found in a selection of Rembrandt’s prints, mostly impressions of final states dating from the 1650s (see watermark description under “Inscriptions and Marks”). Although not conclusive, these similarities suggest that March: Ships at Sea and its related months date from the first half of his career.
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