Description: Black and white chalk on blue paper, 255 x 146 mm. Ruled framing lines in black ink. No watermark. Chain lines: 25mm. Inscribed on the verso, in pencil, ssb390926 0 (p) 6211 (?) - … (four letters, illegible). On the verso of the old mount, in pencil, Corn. Saftleven? / Jacob de Backer? (crossed out) / Martin Carlsson. All these inscriptions are by Martin Carlsson. The letters “ssb” followed by a date indicate “Stockholms stads bokauktion” (Stockholm city book sale). The meaning of the rest of the inscription is unknown. Also numbered on the old mount in the upper left corner, in pen and brown ink, No. 63, and in the upper right corner, in pencil, 13.

This drawing was acquired, together with a similar figure study of a standing old man (entry no. 3), from the estate of Martin Carlsson, who in both cases inscribed the mounts with a tentative attribution to Cornelis Saftleven, replacing an older one to Jacob de Backer. The two drawings were attributed to Asselijn by Bjurström in 1967 on the basis of a comparison with two drawings in Berlin.  Those drawings were questioned by Steland, and for one of them (no. 773) she seems to accept an attribution to Jan Both suggested to her by Schatborn. That drawing is done in a looser manner than the other one (no. 770). Steland treats the Stockholm drawings together, but the same difference in manner between them can be noted as with the Berlin drawings. The seated soldier is loosely drawn, while the volumes of the standing old man are defined by denser hatching, much like drawing no. 770 in Berlin. This does not necessarily mean that we are dealing here with two different hands. Similar studies are attributed to a number of Dutch artists, including the above-mentioned Saftleven and de Backer. Until other evidence emerges, changing the present attribution seems pointless. Cf. the following entry. [Magnusson, Dutch Drawings no. 2]

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