Two ladies and a gentleman on a horse-drawn sleigh c.1620
Pencil, pen and ink and wash, watercolour | 13.9 x 19.6 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 906469
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A drawing of a sleigh decorated with hangings, and drawn by a caparisoned horse with plumes. In the sleigh two elegantly dressed ladies are seated, masked against the cold weather; the gentleman, seen from the back, is seated at the back driving the sleigh, with a whip in his right hand. Another figure, seen from the back, skates beside the sleigh.
Hendrik Avercamp probably trained in Amsterdam. He made numerous drawings of figures enjoying skating and sleigh-riding on icy lakes and rivers. These were often highly coloured, like this example, and may have been intended as finished pieces for sale to collectors. The remainder of his drawings served as a vocabulary of human behaviour as for the most part seen in the provincial town of Kampen. RCIN 906465-906513 amount to nearly one third of Avercamp's known drawings and represent the largest holding in one collection. They have certainly been in the Royal Collection since the late 18th century.Provenance
Abraham van Broyel sale, Amsterdam 30 October 1759, lot D215 where attributed to Hendrik Avercamp, 'een Winter-gezicht met veel stoffasie, met sapjes geteekend, hoog 5 ¼, breed 8 duim'; bought by Pieter Yver (fl.59 with D216); probably acquired by George III; first recorded in a Royal Collection inventory of c.1810 (Inv. A, p. 118: '42. Drawings of some Master in the Stile of Breughel, representing the Diversions of the Dutch and Flemish on the Ice &c: with some Drawings of single figures for the Dresses only')
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink and wash, watercolour
Measurements
13.9 x 19.6 cm (sheet of paper)