Wenceslaus Hollar

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Wenceslaus Hollar

1607-1677

A View of Tangier from the Southeast

ca. 1669

Watercolor and pen and brown ink over black chalk on two joined sheets of paper.

6 1/8 x 24 1/2 inches (157 x 623 mm)

Thaw Collection.

2017.123

Notes:

Hollar accompanied an English delegation to the key Moroccan port of Tangier as a royal scenographer charged with making accurate views of the city. Although Portugal had ceded Tangier to England in 1662, the English were unable to wrest control of the city from Sultan al-Rashīd (r. 1664-72). The delegation failed even to negotiate trading rights, but once back in England, the artist made a successful series of etchings of the city based on drawings such as this one. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"

Inscription:

Inscribed by the artist, "Tangier from South East / Irish Battery, Charles fort, Peterborough Tower, Upper Castle, Governours house, Yorke Castle, Coast of Spaine, Point of Gibraltar, Cape Malabara, Coast of Barbary / Tariffa / The Mould / Bay of Tangier".
Watermark: Horn with strap inside crowned shield over "4" and letters "WR".

Provenance:

Given by the artist (or his widow) to his friend and fellow artist Francis Place (1647-1728), King's Manor, York; his second wife, Ann WIlkinson Place (d. 1752); their elder daughter Ann Place, and her husband, Stonier Perrott or Parrott, Hawkesbury Hall, Holeshill, Warwickshire; their son Place Parrott, Hawkesbury Hall; by descent to his grandson Francis Parrott, MD (d. 1843), Hawkesbury Hall; his sister, Elizabeth Parrott Fraser (d. 1851), widow of Major John Fraser (d. 1809), Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Scotland and Hawkesbury Hall; their daughter, Elizabeth Fraser Baker (d. 1873), Hospitalfield House and Hawkesburry Hall her second husband, Patrick Allan-Fraser (1813-1890), Hospitalfield House and Hawkesbury Hall; by descent to the trustees of his estate; their sale, Sotheby's, London, 19 November 1987, lot 80, repr.; Colin Hunter; his sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1991, lot 20, repr.; Mark Gilbey; sale, Sotheby's, London, 15 July 1993, lot 53 [the "Property of an Estate"], repr.; Gillian Mary Williams (b. 1931); by descent to Thomas Williams Fine Art Ltd., London; W. M. Brady & Co., New York; from whom purchased by Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw, New York.

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Associated names:

Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.

Bibliography:

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 198, repr.
The Thaw collection of master drawings : acquisitions since 2002. New York : Morgan Library & Museum, 2009, no. 11, repr.

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Exhibitions:

Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection

Department:

Drawings and Prints