PIETER CORNELISZ. VERBEECK (Haarlem 1610⁄1615-1652/1654)

This unpublished drawing by the rare artist Pieter Verbeeck has a pendant in a sheet depicting Saint Peter, of the same dimensions and technique but dated two years later, formerly at the sale Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 2009, lot 113. While the latter drawing is fully signed (‘PCVerbeeck’), the present works bears the monogram that can also be found on a number of other drawings and prints by the artist (for an example, see W. Sumowski, Zeichnungen aus fünf Jahrhunderten. Ein Stuttgarter Privatsammlung, exhib. cat., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung, 1999, no. 204, fig. 20); some of these are in the style of Philip Wouwermans (for instance a drawing at the Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-T-1919-25). Verbeeck probably made both drawings of Peter and Paul in Alkmaar, where he joined the guild of Saint Luke in 1635; he later moved to Utrecht and, finally, to Haarlem, where he specialized in cavalry battles and horses in landscapes (I. van Thiel-Stroman in Painting in Haarlem 1500-1850. The collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Ghent and Haarlem, 2006, p. 318-320).