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Paulus van Liender – Utrecht 1731 – 1797 Haarlem
Interior of a forest with two men on a bridge
Black ink and nib, grey wash, black chalk
385 x 475 mm
Provenance : Albert van Loock (L.3751) ;

Around 1790, van Liender elaborates another type of landscape of which the present drawing is a very fine example. Drawings, executed in black chalk with different shades of grey washes applied with a brush in an ample and lively style. Striking by their luminous contrasts, they aim at a grandiose effect and are full of emotion. Announcing the romantic landscapes of the 19th century, these landscapes are van Liender’s most original contribution to 18th century Dutch art.

 

Jean-François Millet – Gruchy 1814 – 1875 Barbizon
Agar
Charcoal on blue paper, squared with black chalk
220 x 435 mm
Verso: An art dealer visiting a painter, with his family visible in the background and the study of a mother and her children in front of a carriage with a cockerel.

Provenance :
Anonymous sale , Paris, Binoche Renaud-Giquello & Associates, march 30, 2012, n°37 ;
Aristophil collection

Our drawing is a preparatory work  to the Agar’s figure  painted by Millet in his painting Agar and Ishmael kept in the Mesdag Museum in The Hague. Hunted by Abraham after Sarah had given birth, Agar finds herself alone in the desert with her son Ishmael. Millet chose to illustrate the most tragic moment of the story, when Agar turns away from her child, unable to bear the pain of seeing him, dying of starvation. Executed in the darkness of charcoal, the ugly, hollow and distorted  Agar’s face expresses her despair. Millet’s realism is the obvious choice here and prefigures  works of twentieth-century artists such as Käthe Kollwitz.