The Boejat legacy in Nantes (2): old master drawings

16/10/23 - Acquisitions - Nantes, Musée d’Arts - The Boejat bequest to Nantes (see the news item of 5/2/23) includes paintings and drawings. After writing about French paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries (see the news item of 13/9/23), we are publishing here the twelve old master drawings that are thus entering the museum’s collections. While Germany, Italy and Holland are represented (four sheets, two of which are Italian), the majority of the works are French, from the 17th-century.

1. Basel (?), late 16th century
Study of a Horseman in Armour with a Broken Spear
Pen and black ink with white highlights - 28.50 x 19.80 cm
Nantes, Musée d’Arts
Photo: Artcurial

See the image in its page

We will begin [1] with the only sixteenth-century drawing, an anonymous study of a horseman from the Germanic school (ill. 1). This sheet, previously attributed to Jörg Breu le Jeune, an artist from Augsburg, was acquired at Artcurial on 27 March 2015. The notice of this sale placed its author closer to the Basel school, around Tobias Stimmer, which the museum is currently retaining as a working hypothesis.

2. Willem Van Mieris (1662-1747)
The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1688
Pen and black ink, grey wash - 18 x 27.50 cm
Nantes, Musée d’Arts
Photo: Artcurial

See the image in its page

The Dutch drawing by Willem van Mieris, dated 1688 (ill. 2) also comes from Artcurial, where it was purchased on 21 March 2018. The son of Frans van Mieris, a native of Leiden, Willem painted in the very meticulous style of the artists of this school, whose most famous representative is Gerard Dou. This work, which represents The Adoration of the Shepherds, shows that this was also the style used for his drawings: the very precise use of ink and wash gives this sheet a very painterly appearance.

3. Raffaellino Motta, called Raffaellino da Reggio (1550-1578)
Diana and Endymion
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, light white highlights, red…