Jan Hulswit

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Jan Hulswit
1766-1822
View of a Watermill
Gray, brown, and black wash over graphite on paper. Framing line in black ink.
7 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches (182 x 237 mm)
Purchased as the gift of George L. K. Frelinghuysen.
2005.189
Notes: 

A painter and draftsman, Hulswit studied with Pieter Barbiers I (1717-1780) and his son the landscape painter Pieter Barbiers II (1749-1842). After a brief tenure as manager of a painted wallpaper factory, Hulswit held a position with a tax office from 1796 until 1807, after which he was able to devote himself to his art, art dealing, and collecting. Encouraged to concentrate on landscapes, Hulswit developed a style that recalls the works of the seventeenth-century Dutch masters. Early in his career he painted and drew after nature in and around Amsterdam, later turning to composed views. He taught at academies in Amsterdam and Antwerp, and his pupils included Pieter George Westenberg (1791-1873). This drawing is the first by Hulswit to enter the Morgan's collections, and it strengthens Library's holdings of Dutch artists of the late eighteenth century, joining works by Jacob van Strij (1756-1815) and a drawing by Hendrik Kobell (1751-1779) in the Thaw collection. "View of a Watermill" will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonne of the drawings of Jan Hulswit being prepared by Albert Elen, who has confirmed the drawing's authorship and proposes it as a study for a painting in a private Dutch collection.

Inscription: 

Inscribed on verso at lower left in graphite, "J. Hulswit".
Watermark: Coat of arms with rampant lion, fragment.

Provenance: 
Saam and Lily Nijstad, The Hague (Unicorno Collection; their inventory number on the present mount at lower left in graphite, N 60); their sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 19 May 2004, lot 268, repr. (as attributed to Jan Hulswit; bought in); purchased from Saam and Lily Nijstad via Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 2005.
Watermark: 
Associated names: 

Nijstad, Saam, former owner.
Nijstad, Lily, former owner.
Frelinghuysen, George L. K., donor.

Bibliography: 

Albert Elen, "The Drawings of Jan Hulswit: A Catalogue Raisonne", forthcoming.

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