GROENEWEGEN, Pieter Anthonisz. van
(b. ca. 1600, Delft, d. 1658, Den Haag)

Landscape

1635-41
Black chalk on vellum, 110 x 155 m
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge

This drawing is a folio of the Abrams Album (named after the donor) in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen, the Delft landscape artist, was clearly very much influenced by his youthful journey to Italy. After spending some years in Rome, he continued to paint Italian landscapes all his life. Since the Roman ruins he depicted are only vaguely similar to those on the Palatine Hill or in the Forum Romanum, one wonders whether he really drew or study them on the spot, as so many of his countrymen had done. No drawing by Groenewegen seems to have survived, apart from a contribution to the Abrams Album. This landscape, very characteristic of this artist, shows a view of the hilly Italian countryside, full of imaginary, impressive, classical remains. It was probably made several years after Groenewegen's Italian journey.