red chalk
30.4 x 20.9 cm

Johan Christian Willem Safft was born in 1778 in Amsterdam and made his living as a cloth merchant. [1] He was, however, a gifted artist too; he studied under Pieter Barbiers (I) (1717- 1780) and made paintings, etchings and drawings. For the latter he received a silver medal in 1814 at the drawings department of the society Felix Meritis and a gold medal at the ‘Stads Teeken-Akademie’, both in Amsterdam. [2] Unfortunately, few of his works are known to have survived. The present drawing is a fine and characteristic example of the artist’s draughtsmanship and be compared on stylistic grounds to a sheet with figure studies, also executed in red chalk, from the Fodor Collection, Amsterdam Museum, [3] and another of a lumberjack in the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris. [4]




[1] R. van Eijnden and A, van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der Vaderlandsche Schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIII eeuw, III, 1830 [reprint, Amsterdam, 1979], p. 229.
[2] ibid., p. 229.
[3] Amsterdam Museum, inv. TA 10771.
[4] Frits Lugt Collection, Paris, inv. 1976-T.2.