River landscape with a fishing boat.

Drawing, pen and black/brown ink with blue and grey wash, framing lines in grey ink, 9,6 x 19,5 cm, laid paper, signed in pen at right with monogram "WB" (trimmed to framing line, lower left corner torn, some tiny brown stains at upper edge from old glue).

Stuck by upper corners on paper mount.

A lone man in a boat on a river with two cows on the shore. Based on the monogram, drawn in the same ink as the rest of the drawing, the sheet can be added to the oeuvre of Willem van Bemmel (1630-1708), a landscape painter from Utrecht and pupil of Herman Saftleven (1609-1685). The present drawing still shows strong influence of his teacher and can probably be considered an early drawing made before the artist's many travels to Italy and Germany. The scribbled rendering of the trees is comparable also to his later Italianate landscape drawings. Only a few of his early works are known today.
Ref. P. Schatborn, Tekenen van Warmte: 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse tekenaars in Italië, Amsterdam 2001, pp. 144-146. - Nagler 1546.