Anthonie Andriessen (Amsterdam 1746 – 1813 Amsterdam)

A Young Woman Seated at a Table

Pen and brown ink, grey wash, over traces of black chalk, black ink framing lines, 145 x 112 mm (5.7 x 4.4 inch)

Provenance
- With Shaunagh Fitzgerald Ltd, London, 1985
- Private collection, USA

Literature
Old Master Drawings, Shaunagh Fitzgerald Ltd., London, November 1985, cat. no. 37b

***

Like his better known brother Jurriaan Andriessen (1742–1819), who was also his teacher, Anthonie specialized in painted wall decorations, which were hugely popular from the middle of the 18th century.¹ Jurriaan’s son Christiaan (1775–1846) kept a visual diary between 1805 and 1808 which has become one of the most iconic documents of its time. Both brothers were active in the Amsterdam Teekenacademie (drawing academy); their pupils included some of the best-known 19th-century Dutch artists, such as Wouter Johannes van Troostwijk, Hendrik Voogd and Jean Grandjean.

The majority of Anthonie’s drawings are landscapes, sometimes executed in colour washes, sometimes in grey or brown ink. They are strongly reminiscent of drawings by masters of the 17th century. Anthonie is known to have studied the masters of the Golden Age, and drawn copies after paintings by Jan Wijnants, Adriaen van de Velde, Dominicus van Tol and Frans Hals are known from historic sale catalogues.

Anthonie’s most original work is a small group of figure studies, to which the present sheet belongs. They are drawn in a strongly stylized manner and appear to have been done quite late in his career, in the early years of the 19th century. They are similar to the drawings of his nephew, Christiaan, although whether the young artist influenced the older uncle, or vice versa, has not yet been determined. Comparable sheets depict a Woman in a Window,² a Women Seated at a Table (fig.),³ both in private collections, and a Seated Mother and Child, in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam (fig.).⁴

The authorship has been confirmed by Drs Charles Dumas.⁵

SOLD

1. For the artist, see the biography in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992- , vol. 3, p. 674.
2. Pen and grey ink, grey wash, 170 x 129 mm; formerly in the collection of Jacobus A. Klaver, Amsterdam; his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2008, lot 44, repr.
3. Pen and wash, 200 x 150 mm; with Laurentius Master Prints, Zaltbommel, 1978, their catalogue Honderd Tekeningen van Oude Meesters, Zaltbommel 1978, cat. no. 5, repr.
4. Pen and grey ink, grey wash, 134 x 100 mm, inv. no. RP-T-00-821.
5. Email correspondence, 3 March 2017.