Jacob van der Ulft, who seems never to have visited Italy himself, may have replicated many of his Italian scenes from similar drawings, in a similarly glowing golden brown ink, by Jan de Bisschop (just as he copied Pieter Saenredam's portrait of the old Amsterdam town hall). This drawing, set down in serene and lush "Bisschop ink," is typical of van der Ulft's love of ruins and of Italy, preoccupations that characterized so many of his Dutch contemporaries. Fairly similar scenes are in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the De Grez Collection, Brussels, and, in particular, in a sale, Berlin (Max Perl), November 8-9, 1926, no. 714. Like the preceding drawing, this richly washed sketch was part of a Jacob van der Ulft album in the collection of Baron van Hardenbroek. The present sheet is preserved on a blue laid album page, which has a watermark dating to 1769, Amsterdam (countermark D&C BLAUW, Heawood no. 3267). Back to Gallery