Laid down to an eighteenth-century paper support. Signed: C.Visscher / fecit. 

Literature:     Alsteens, Stijn, et. al., 88.

Provenance:   Possibly Dionis Muilman; his sale, Amsterdam (de Bosch a.o.), 29 March 1773, Kunstboek C, no. 149 (24.- to van de  Velde).

                       Possibly Frans van de Velde; his sale, Amsterdam (Ploos van Amstel a.o.), 16 January 1775, Kunstboek C, no. 130 (90.- to Fouquet).

                       Possibly ‘D’un célèbre Cabinet étranger’; his sale, Paris (Basan), 24 April 1775, lot 3 (600 livres).

          Possibly sold, Paris (Basan), 16 April 1787, lot 167.

          Dr. Bodo Slingenberg; his sale, Amsterdam (Christie’s), 29 March 2001, lot 401.

          Private Collection.

Engraved:      By the artist (F.W.H. Hollstein, The new Hollstein Dutch & Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1450-1700, XL, no. 52).

The present drawing belongs to an important group of highly finished works on vellum that developed the principal figures for Visscher’s monumental print entitled the Pancake Woman (fig.1) (Hollstein, 52). Based on old sales records, as many as four autograph versions of the central figure of the old woman appear to have existed in two different compositions. A drawing of the same figure but with the inclusion of a spinning wheel and without the knife in her left hand is in the Dutuit Collection at the Petit Palais, Paris.[1] A version of the present composition was sold first from the collection of Dionys Muilman (1702-1772) in 1773 and again in 1775 from the collection of Frans van de Velde (d. 1775 or earlier). Another autograph example is found at the sale of an anonymous Dutch(?) collector in Paris in the same year. The close proximity in sale dates of these drawings, only three months apart, one of which took place in Amsterdam and the other in Paris, makes it unlikely that they reference the same drawing. Another example of the composition in the Petit Palais is known to have previously been in the collection of Gerrit Muller (d. 1827 or earlier).[2] In addition to these works, a drawing for the boy in Visscher’s print is kept at the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, while a drawing for the cat dated 1651 is preserved at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam. As Visscher’s drawing style shows relatively little development through the 1650s, the date on the Boijmans drawing provides the surest evidence for dating this work.

Meticulous preparation of individual figures in black chalk on vellum prior to executing his prints was a hallmark of Visscher’s working process. Two similar preparatory drawings are known for Visscher’s print of the Rat-Catcher of 1655 (Hollstein, 50), one of which depicts only the boy while, in the other, Visscher has more fully developed the whole composition.[3] In light of the existence of the latter drawing, it would seem plausible that Visscher created a still untraced drawing of the entire composition for his Pancake Woman as well. This notion is made all-the-more likely given the existence of no fewer than two preparatory drawings showing the entire composition of Visscher’s Gypsy (Hollstein, 49).[4] 

While the Dutuit drawing has often been regarded as the primary drawing and this one a variant, it is likelier that Visscher drew somewhat more heavily upon the present work for his conception of the woman in the print. The woman in the Dutuit drawing does not hold a knife, while the figure in our sheet holds the utensil in her left hand, a detail that would ultimately appear in the print.

The importance of the present drawing for the execution of the figure of the old woman in Visscher’s print was recognized by eighteenth-century collectors. While the distinguished early provenance for the Dutuit version of this drawing has long been known, little was known about this example until very recently. Indeed, its very existence was unknown until it first surfaced in 2001. It, too, has an illustrious provenance. Given the similarity of size and subject matter, it cannot today be demonstrated with certainty whether our example is that which once belonged to Muilman, the eminent collector of Visscher’s drawings in the period, and van de Velde or the unfortunately anonymous Dutch(?) collector whose collection included a drawing of this subject and was sold in Paris in 1775. If it is the Parisian drawing, it obtained the highest price for a drawing by Visscher sold at auction in France—600 livres. This was substantially more than that of the second highest price of 400 livres paid in 1772 for a now-lost drawing by Visscher at the sale of the collection formed by Gabriel Huquier (1695-1772).[5]

(fig.1) Cornelis Visscher, The Pancake Woman, c.1650, engraving and etching.