Landscape with Farm Buildings

Description

Gallery Rotation Winter 2014
Abraham Bloemaert
Netherlands, Dutch,
1564–1651
Landscape with Farm Buildings
1584–1651
Pen and brown gray wash
on cream paper
Museum purchase, 1960/2.75
The drawing by Bloemaert, on the other hand, may have served as a preparatory work for a painting, a print, or a larger and more elaborate drawing. A roughly-squared grid in graphite overlays the image and in many instances cross-hatching is evident. The carefully observed ruined cottage in a picturesque setting is characteristic of Bloemaert’s fusion of naturalism and artifice. Compositions such as this served as working formulations for his large landscape paintings, which presented more elaborate imaginary scenes that included elements, such as the cottage, studied from nature.