Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Pieter Jansz. Quast
The Quack
Auction Closed
July 6, 10:38 AM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Pieter Jansz. Quast
Amsterdam 1605/6 - 1647
The Quack
Black chalk, within brown ink framing lines, on vellum;
signed and dated in black chalk on the table: Pieter Quast / Anno 1642
bears old attribution in pencil, verso: P Quast and numbering: mno. 1292
239 by 305 mm
his sale, Stuttgart, Gutekunst, 27 April 1899, lot 527;
Johannes Rump (1861-1932), Copenhagen (L.3401),
his sale, Berlin, Amsler and Ruthardt, 25-27 May 1908;
Puppel Collection, Berlin, by 1940;
Ernst Jürgen Otto, Celle (L.873b);
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak Van Waay, 21 March 1977, lot 46;
Jiles Boon (1916-2009), Rotterdam (L.3355);
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak Van Waay, 18 November 1980, lot 113
This is a fine example of the comic scenes depicted by Quast, which were often drawn from specific sources in popular theatre. The Quack Doctor was frequently satirised in Dutch 17th Century art and indeed another drawing by Quast, showing the fraudster selling his wares, was sold in these rooms in 2018.1 The exceptional quality of this very well preserved drawing was recognised by Walther Bernt, who selected it for reproduction in his compendium of definitive examples of the drawings of all the Dutch draughtsmen of the 17th century, each represented by just a couple of outstanding examples of their work.
1. Sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 July 2018, lot 138