Dutch School (17TH CENTURY)
A Thornback Ray
Pen and gray ink and watercolor, heightened with white
Paper size: 5 ¼ x 7 ½ in.
Provenance: With F.A.C. Prestel, Frankfurt, before 1908 (L.2730)

This drawing and the following lot belong to a long-standing Dutch tradition of natural history drawing.  Not surprisingly, given the great Dutch maritime tradition and dependence on the sea, depictions of fish have always been popular with Dutch artists, from the very beginning of the 17th century.  A celebrated example is Hendrik Goltzius’ spectacular drawing of a John Dory, in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, and fine drawings of fish by Adriaan Matham, rather similar in style to this, also featured in the encyclopedic drawing collections of Laurens van der Hem.