(Amsterdam 1628–1671 The Hague) A landscape with a fortress on a hill, pen and brown ink, over black chalk, brown wash, on laid paper, 32,5 x 64 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Italy.

Literature:
See: Renske E. Jellema, Michiel C. Plomp, Episcopius: Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671), lawyer and draughtsman, Amsterdam 1992, pp. 22-37; Michiel C. Plomp, „Landschappen en Stadsgezichten van Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671)“, Antik 27, No. 5, 1992 S. 255-263; Marian Bisanz-Prakken, „Die Landschaft im Jahrhundert Rembrandts, Niederländische Zeichnungen des 17. Jahrhunderts aus der Graphischen Sammlung Albertina“, 1993, p. 134.

Jan de Bisschop, known as Johannes Episcopius, was active as a lawyer by profession in the Netherlands and developed from an amateur to a skilled and influential draughtsman and etcher. In 1652 he opened a studio and later founded the Confrerie Pictura, a small drawing academy in The Hague where an intellectual elite and friends and draughtsmen such as Constantin Huygens the Younger became members. During his entire career, De Bisshop drew landscapes and topographical views (Jellema/Plomp 1992, S. 22-37).
The earliest drawings were executed in the southern Netherlands between 1649 and 1652. During the years of Bisshop’s studies in Leiden his drawing style was influenced by Bartholomeus Breenbergh who likely was his teacher. Particularly Breenbergh’s light flooded landscapes and his Italianate landscapes with their atmospheric chiaroscuro achieved through an effective wash technique had an impact on Bisshop’s work. Whereas in his early work Bisshop executed his drawings in black chalk and added brown wash with the brush to the outlines, his style became more and more personal and individual after he had moved to The Hague. From 1660 on the pen took on the former role of the chalk when he outlined his motifs. Bisshop added increasingly a free and more daring wash technique to his drawings (vgl. Bisanz-Prakken 1993, S. 134).
The present drawing presumably represents an Italian motif, which cannot be connected with a given location. Despite the numerous Italian landscapes and vedutas which De Bisshop made during his entire career, researchers agree that the artist never was in Italy and that the majority of his works were based on drawings and etchings by other artists. A comparable landscape with a large format by Jan de Bisschop with a panoramic view of Rome is kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York and another view of the banks of Tiber river in Rome is in the Albertina Museum in Vienna. An extensive stock of drawings by the artist is preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The attribution to Jan de Bisschop was confirmed by Dr. Holm Bevers on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph.