Soldier Charging His Musket

Artists

Dimensions

irregular: 22.2 x 13.9 cm (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.) mount: 39 x 25.9 cm (15 3/8 x 10 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Probably Jacques de Gheyn III, The Hague and Utrecht; probably Johannes Uytenbogaert, Amsterdam, probably by descent; to Jan and Jacob van Gheel, Amsterdam. Probably Jan Pietersz. Zomer, Amsterdam (his undated collection catalogue, no. 56 [see note 1]); presumably sold; [Jan van Zutphen and Gysbert Hol, Amsterdam, 5 April 1725]. Probably Jan Goeree, Amsterdam, sold; [Schoemaker, Amsterdam, 12 March 1731 and following days, lot T.] [1.] [Christie's, London, 23 March 1982, lot 67, repr.] sold; to Maida and George Abrams, Boston (without their mark, L. 3306); The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Gift of George Abrams in memory of Melvin Seiden, Harvard Class of 1952, 2011.512. [1.] De Gheyn’s drawings for the plates in "The Exercise of Arms" remained together through the first three decades of the eighteenth century. They are first recorded in the collections of Jan Pietersz Zomer (1641-1724) and Jan Goeree (1670-1731). On the death of the artist, they were presumably inherited by his son, Jacques de Gheyn III, and might have passed from him to Johannes Uytenbogaert (1608-1680), and then by descent to Jan (1667-1757) and Jacob van Gheel (1670-1721). Zomer’s catalogue of his stock or private collection—"‘t Heerelyk Konst-Kabinet van Teekeningen en Prenten by een vergadert door den Konst-Vermaarden Ian Pietersz. Zomer in Amsterdam" (not dated, but compiled c. 1720-24)--lists in a single album all the drawings for "The Exercise of Arms," together with sixteen for "The Riding School," a series of twenty-two prints depicting cavalry exercises. All these drawings presumably figured in the sale of Zomer’s collection (Amsterdam, Jan van Zutphen and Gysbert Hol, 5 April 1725), but no copy of the catalogue survives. Goeree owned only the drawings for "The Exercise of Arms," which he preserved in three albums.