Landscape

Rubens

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Rubens. To the left of the landscape is a stretch of water, identified in the text below as a moat, with a bridge across it leading to a tall gateway. In the centre of the drawing is a small group of trees, one taller and more prominent than the rest. To the right are some small buildings, including one that appears to be raised on stilts in water. There are trees across the entire background, and some foliage in the foreground. The trees, sky and water are picked out in green and blue watercolour. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "14. RUBENS (b. 1577; d. 1640) LANDSCAPE Collection of Henry Oppenheimer, Esq. Pen and sepia and watercolour. 23.7 x 48.8 cm. (9 5/16 x 19 1/4 in.). A very beautiful example of Rubens's landscape drawing of his earlier period, in which he was working with the same materials and somewhat in the manner of Jan Bruegel the elder, who assisted him in the landscape of his paintings. In the landscape drawings of the latter part of his life, after his settlement at the Château of Steen in 1835, where most of his landscape paintings were done, Rubens seems to have used chalk and body colour more than the pen and wash. In the lower l. is written P. P. Rubens, probably the artist's signature. On the reverse is an inscription in the artist's hand, 'Dits de hoeve bij de buythoeve 1609' ('This is the farm by the buitenhof'), the buitenhof being the castellated gateway to a château approached by the bridge over the moat. The drawing is closely related in style to another in the Malcolm Collection, British Museum (J.C.R. 581), of a farm-yard, which bears the same signature, and a similar inscription and the same date on the reverse. The buildings seen are not the same, but they might be different parts of the same farm, the Museum example showing a large farm-yard, possibly at Deurne, near Antwerp (as seems indicated in the inscription). A third drawing of a farm, similar in character, in Berlin, bears another inscription by Rubens on the reverse describing it as near Roggeveld, which is on the road between Deurne and Wijneghem, near Antwerp. A. M. H."