Catalogue-2014-Jean-Luc-Baroni

Roelandt Savery
Kortrijk 1576-1639 Utrecht
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A Landscape with a Shepherd Resting by a Gnarled Tree, and Goats Grazing
Black chalk, heightened with touches of red, grey and blue wash and white heightening. Indented for
transfer. Signed at lower left with monogram “RS”.
220 x 278 mm. (8 5 /8 x 11 in.)
Provenance: Charles Rogers (1711-1784), his stamp at the lower left (Lugt 624); Sir John Charles Robinson
(1824-1913), his monogram in gold at the lower left (Lugt 1433); Paul Frantz Marcou (1860-1932) (Lugt 1911b).
Roeland Savery began his artistic career in Amsterdam under the tuition of his brother Jacob (1565-1603)
before travelling to Prague in 1604 where he became court painter to the Emperors Rudolph II and Matthias.
Both Emperors had made their court a centre of Mannerist art; Rudolph’s galleries were the most impressive
in Europe at the time, and he employed some of the best contemporary artists, including Bartholomaus
Spranger, Hans von Aachen and Adrien de Vries. The Emperor also possessed a strong interest in botany,
landscape, science and philosophy. In 1606, he commissioned Savery to travel to Tyrol “to draw wonders”
which would reflect the beauty and particularity of the Tyrolean countryside; these were then to adorn the
Emperor’s palace. During this period, Savery executed large landscapes embellished with meticulously
rendered animals and plants. He also made numerous preparatory sketches of trees, waterfalls, mountains,
and birds, which provided reference material for later paintings, for example, the Cascade of 1608. Savery
returned to court in 1608, and began compiling an extensive repertory of figure studies. Drawn directly
from life observed in the busy markets of Prague, these are inspired by Pieter Breughel I, whose work the
Emperor had spared no expense in acquiring for his collection. In fact, until 1970, these drawings were
attributed to Breughel 1 . Savery often inscribed these studies with the words “naer het leven” (drawn from
life); he would then return to the studio to further enhance them, before inserting them into paintings
such as the Peasants Carousing of 1608. In 1618, Savery settled in Utrecht, where he befriended the still
life painters Balthasar van der Ast and Ambrosius Bosschaert. During the 1620s he was one of the most
successful painters in Utrecht, where he remained until the end of his life in 1639.
The present sheet is a superb and rare example of an intricately rendered, highly finished chalk drawing by
Savery. Possibly sketched directly from nature, Savery has worked up the view into a pictorial composition,
with a powerfully drawn foreground becoming gradually lighter and more delicate as the scene recedes.
The depiction of the gnarled tree trunk in thick, heavy black chalk serves to heighten the dramatic intensity
of the scene. The tree is set close against the picture plane and this, combined with the deep shadows
and contorted tree roots evokes an eerie sense of mystery to an otherwise naturalistic scene. Masterfully in
its draughtsmanship, particular attention is given to the minutely detailed bark of the tree trunk, executed
with lively and expressive coloured chalk contours.
The drawing, which is indented throughout, was
engraved in reverse by Aegidius Sadeler (fig.1) 2
and can be compared with another sketch by
Savery of Giant Trees, 3 also engraved in reverse by
Sadeler, which shows similarities in the rendering
of the contorted tree-trunk, in the leaves and in the
surrounding landscape. Another detailed study
of the entwined roots of a tree, but without the
pictorial setting seen here, drawn with chalk and
pen and ink, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New
York. The latter is described as being partly drawn in
chalk dipped in oil which is perhaps the technique
used in the present work as well, given the rich,
1. Aegidius Sadeler, after Roeland Savery, engraving dense and varied texture of the medium.
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