Framed, with UV glass

Pen and grey ink, grey wash, Over black chalk, Brown ink framing lines, 18.0 x 25.8 cm
Signed:         “J. Cats inv et fec 1799”
Numbered:        “746”
Watermark:    Crest with a Post horn and “D & C Blauw”

Jacob Cats can be regarded as the most outstanding draughtsman in Holland during the second half of the eighteenth century. His drawings present scenes of Dutch everyday life, renewing the vision of Holland during his time, but also presenting the Dutch man as united with nature. His ability to represent, in pen and ink or watercolour, atmosphere, and the effects of light is nearly unsurpassed in the eighteenth century.( Earl Roger Mandle, “Dutch Masterpieces from the Eighteenth Century”. 1972, p.32,33). The present drawing  can be compared to the “Winter Night in a Dutch Town” in the Cleveland Museum of Art, dated 1797, and the “Scene on a Frozen River Skirting a City Rampart” in the Rijksmuseum printroom (inv.no.1919:36) which is dated 1790.