German or Netherlandish, ca. 1580-1600

The style of this sheet points to a date in the later decades of the 16th century; its rare watermark to an artist active in the German-speaking world (compare watermarks illustrated in Piccard-online). It is possible, however, that he was originally from the Netherlands, and a comparison can be made, for instance, with the landscape drawings by Frederik van Valckenborch (1566-1623) made in South Germany in the closing years of the century (for this sketchbook, see K.G. Boon, The Netherlandish and German drawings of the XVth and XVIth centuries of the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris 1992, I, pp. 369-371). The present landscape is more boldly drawn, however, and shows a draftsman equally accomplished in figures as in landscapes.