signed with monogram and dated ‘CS /1658’
oiled (?) black chalk, on brown prepared paper, heightened with white, watermark foolscap, black chalk framing lines
23.5 x 20.5 cm

Provenance:
A.N. Alferoff, (1811-1872), Bonn (without his mark), ‘Katalog V’, 6l; bequeathed to the University of Charkow in
1873, handed over to the Art Historical Museum in Charkow.
The State Museum the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, their mark (L. 5185) (verso);
C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, 29 April 1931, lot 215 (to Holtkott),
Walter Holtkott (1916-1996), Bedburg.
With David Lachenmann, Munich, circa 1990.
With Katrin Bellinger, Munich, (exhib. cat., Harari & Johns, London, 1990, no. 25).
With R.M. Light & Co., Santa Barbara/Otto Naumann, New York, 1995, from whom acquired by;
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck (1930-2010), Augsburg (his mark, not in Lugt) and by descent.

Literature:
W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven 1607-1681: Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin, 1978, pp. 105-6, no. 162.

This drawing is sold with a presumably 17th copy, possibly from the artist’s studio, of slightly larger format:

Studio (?) of Cornelis Saftleven
(Gorinchem 1607-1681 Rotterdam)
A man asleep, seated at a table
black chalk, heightened with white on buff paper with inscription ‘CS/ 1658’
28.7 x 22.7 cm

Provenance:
Possibly S. de Visser, The Hague, 8 March 1869, lot 251 (to Buffa & Zonen, Amsterdam). [Dr. Richard Alexander-Katz], auction, Berlin 21 June 1917, lot 147.
Anononymous sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, 28 April 1939, lot 424 (as Cornelis Saftleven, to Hering [?])
With David Lachenmann, Munich, 1999.
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck (1930-2010), Augsburg (his mark, not in Lugt) verso, and by descent.

Literature:
W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven 1607-1681: Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin, 1978, p. 104, no. 154 (as by Cornelis Saftleven).

The drawn and painted œuvre of Cornelis Saftleven is one of the largest and best- documented of his time; in his catalogue raisonné of the artist, Wolfgang Schulz recorded over 200 paintings and almost 500 drawings by the artist. These drawings, of which about a third are dated (between 1625 and 1677) [1] cover a wide range of subjects from studies of heads, animals and nudes to landscapes, mythological and topographical subjects. Furthermore, they include 175 studies of single figures, man and female. [2] These drawings depict acutely observed figures occupied in a wide variety of activities, from drinking to smoking and music making to sleeping.

The present drawing is an entirely characteristic example of the artist’s figure drawings. The signed and dated sheet depicts a boy, seated on a basket which is turned upside down, asleep with his head resting in his arms and the composition is confidently rendered in Saftleven’s bold use of (wetted) black chalk which he highlighted with white accents. Drawings like these do not seem to have been made as studies for paintings, either directly or indirectly; only a small number of them are connected to paintings.
It is therefore, more likely that they had an independent function, either in the artist’s studio or as works that could be sold to collectors (or both). [3] The sheet can be very closely compared to a drawing from the same year, showing a young man wearing a hat leaning on a table, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. [4] While executed on blue paper, the composition as well as the handling of the chalk and white heightening, are closely related.

The present drawing was acquired by Hans-Uhlrich Beck in 1995 and four years later he re-united it with another, slightly larger, version of the present composition. That sheet, is much quicker drawn and even though it is signed and has been published as by Saftleven, it seems likely that that drawing was executed by someone from Saftleven’s circle or a follower. It should be noted, however, that at least one similar case of a figure study by Saftleven of which two versions exist is known. The Rijksmuseum recently acquired an unsigned drawing [5] which copies a drawing by Cornelis Saftleven showing a seated man with a pipe, which is signed and dated 1662. [6] The unsigned drawing is clearly weaker than the signed version, however, it is inscribed in Cornelis’ handwriting on the verso with the address of Cornelis’ brother Herman indicating that it was probably produced by Cornelis himself and that it was sent to his brother. The fact that there
are some differences between the present two drawings, however, both in quality and composition, seem to indicate that the one on blue paper was indeed executed by an artist from Cornelis’ circle or a follower of than the artist himself.



[1] W. Schulz, op. cit., pp. 40-45.
[2] ibid., nos. 30-207.
[3] P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings from the seventeenth century, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, 1981-1982, p. 78.
[4] Inv. RP-T-1893-A-2808.
[5] Inv. RP-T-2019-423.
[6] Inv. RP-T-1989-104.