A Sunken Track with Travelers outside Brussels
Jan de Bisschop
ca. 1649 · Black lead, brush and brown and gray wash, black ink framing lines · Drawings and Prints
Brown wash beautifully evokes the subtle play of light on the rocks and foliage in this landscape that depicts a road on the outskirts of Brussels. The Dutch artist Jan de Bisschop drew almost exclusively in brown wash along with lines of pen and brown ink. He employed this technique in numerous copies of earlier works of art but he used it as well to render landscape. He probably created this drawing during a trip to Flanders in 1649. A small piece of paper inscribed in an early hand "buyten Brussel" (outside of Brussels), is attached to the verso of this sheet. A number of other drawings related to this trip that depict the area around Brussels are known. De Bisschop was a lawyer by trade but he mingled with an elite circle of intellectuals and artists in The Hague where he had set up a law practice in 1652.
- Artist
- Jan de Bisschop
- Date
- ca. 1649
- Medium
- Black lead, brush and brown and gray wash, black ink framing lines
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Gift of Kenneth Grebinar, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2019