GOSSART, Jan
(b. ca. 1478, Maubeuge, d. 1532, Middelburg)

The Holy Family Seated at the Foot of a Tree

1510-15
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, on vellum, 156 x 127 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This drawing was possibly inspired by one of Dürer's engravings of the Virgin in which the Christ Child looks at the viewer and the composition is framed at right by a tree. It was made either as a finished work or, most likely, as a model to show prospective patrons of paintings.