A Track on the Edge of a Wood with a Peasant Carrying Sheep

after 1640

A Track on the Edge of a Wood with a Peasant Carrying Sheep, after 1640. Anthonie Waterloo (Dutch, 1609/10–1690). Charcoal and wetted charcoal and gray wash on cream laid paper; image and sheet: 25.8 x 39.5 cm (10 3/16 x 15 9/16 in.); mounted: 26.8 x 40.4 cm (10 9/16 x 15 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.144 Known exclusively for his drawings and prints, the Dutch artist Anthonie Waterloo specialized in tree studies and dense forest scenes such as this drawing. The vista here was probably made when he visited the Veluwe region of the Netherlands, in the southern province of Gelderland along the Rhine, in the 1640s. The landscape there was known for its woodlands, heathland, panoramic views, and sand drift, producing vistas drastically different than those of the flat, northwestern Netherlandish provinces. Waterloo's technique of using wet charcoal over dry chalk produced the effect of shimmering light and movement across the complex group of trees that are the feature of the drawing. Waterloo made and sold his drawings as finished works of art. This drawing likely depicts the sandy, wooded region of Veluwe in the southern part of the Netherlands.