Nicolaes van Lijnhoven (Haarlem c.1610 – 1702)

Landscape with Travellers

Pen and brown ink, brown framing lines, 106 x 122 mm (4.2 x 4.8 inch)

With early inscription or signature ‘Lynhoven’ (pen and brown ink, lower left)

Provenance
~ George Abrams, Boston, Mass., USA
~ Private collection, The Netherlands

***

Nicolaes van Lijnhoven was born in Haarlem around 1610, the son of Domenicus Fredericksz van Lijnhoven; Domenicus’s sister Geertgen, Nicolaes’s aunt, was married to the painter Cornelis Bega (1631/32–1664), who may have been his teacher.¹ Lijnhoven is mostly known as an engraver, particular after designs by Andries Both (1612/13–1642) and Pieter Fransz de Grebber (c.1600–1652/53).²

A small corpus of drawings by Lijnhoven is known, showing the influence of Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668). Although they are exceptionally rare, a few examples are preserved in the collections of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, the Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen in Weimar and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. A drawing representing a Group of Riders in the Dunes by Lijnhoven is part of the collections of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (fig.).³

A similar early inscription or signature occurs on a drawing by Lijnhoven representing a Soldiers’ Camp, preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (fig.).⁴

1. For the artist, see Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, Leipzig 1907-1950, vol. 23 (1929), p. 31.
2. F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca.1450-1700, Amsterdam 1949– , vol, XI (1954), p. 145, nos. 1-14.
3. Pen and brown ink, 84 x 106 mm, inv. no. S 001.
4. Pen and brown ink, 91 x 147 mm, inv. no. RP-T-1885-A-491.