Frederik de Moucheron was the son of Balthasar de Moucheron (Arnemuiden 1587-) and Cornelia van Broeckhoven from Schoonhoven. He married Maria Jouderville (1636-1719, daughter of the painter Isaac de Jouderville) in Amsterdam on 3 July 1659. They had a daughter Cornelia (born 1662) and two sons, Isaac (1667-1744) and Balthasar de Moucheron (born 1674), both who became painters. After an apprenticeship to Jan Asselijn (1610-1652) Frederik travelled to France shortly after his master died. In Paris he seems to have been connected to Adriaen van Eemont (1626-1662) and Jan Worst (first documented 1655-1686) and probably worked together with Adriaen van de Velde (1636-1672), Johannes Lingelbach (1622-1674), Jan van Huchtenburg (1647-1733) and Dirck Helmbreeker (1633-1696) who may have painted figures in his paintings. After de death of Willem Schellinks (1623-1678), who also contributed to the Atlas Blaeu-van der Hem, Frederik de Moucheron and Nicolaes Berchem (1621-1683) completed the unfinished the paintings of his inventory.
The dilapidated watermill in this recently discovered drawing is most probably located in the South of France. More specifically it could well be located near the South or South-West of Lyon in the close surroundings of Vienne or Yzeron. Frederik de Moucheron (1633-1685) travelled through these cities during his sojourn where he made drawings for the Atlas Blaeu-van der Hem financed by the Amsterdam lawyer and collector Laurens van der Hem (1621-1678). The drawings he made during these travels in France would be a steady source of inspiration for the rest of his career.[1]
Frederik de Moucheron depicted both places (Vienne and Yzeron) several times and seemed to have a strong preference for depicting watermills of which drawings are recorded in the Atlas Blaeu-van der Hem in Vienna and the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin. Two of these four sheets are of closely comparable dimensions.[2][3][4][5]
Aside from being a subject of high preference by Frederik de Moucheron due to it's technically challenging characteristics, the dilapidated watermill in our drawing with it's numerous angles of sunlight, raking light, shadows and complex perspective, make the present drawing a showcase of pure pleasure of draughtsmanship.
The style and media of the present sheet correspond with Frederik's more loosely executed drawings in brush and grey ink, without the added contour lines in pen and brown ink. The watermark reveals the drawing must have been made on the way back home, as the watermark Three Hills with Pigeon is of Italian origin and probably was bought in the South of France or Northern part of Italy during the artist's visit. The drawing must have been made in the years 1655-1659, the period in which Frederik travelled from Amsterdam through Antwerp to Paris and Lyon. For several drawings in the Atlas Blaeu-van der Hem, the authorship remains a mystery, whether they have been drawn by Frederik de Moucheron or Jan Worst as the artists copied after each other and both artists travelled together and were active in the surroundings of Lyon.[6]
The shadow drenched moss-clad wall on the right of the watermill reminds of the identical idiosyncratic style compared to the moss-clad wall in the drawing given to Willem Romeyn (1624-1695) at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam [7].
A big and warm thanks to Stijn Alsteens and Annemarie Stefes for their kind assistance and help with attributing the drawing.[8]
[1] Stijn Alsteens, Hans Buijs, Paysages de France, dessinés pas Lambert Doomer et les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Fondation Custodia, Paris, 2008. p. 291-300.
[2] Frederik de Moucheron, Water Mill near Vienne.
Black chalk, brush and grey ink, grey wash, 43 x 64 cm.
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem,
Bd. 04:06, fol. 6, [12-13]. Inv. no. E 22727-D POR MAG.
[3] Frederik de Moucheron, Water Mill of Yzeron near Lyon.
Black chalk, brush and grey ink, grey wash, 33 x 26 cm.
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem,
Bd. 04:31, fol. 7, (30). Inv. no. E 23002D POR MAG.
[4] Frederik de Moucheron, Wassermühle an der Gère in Vienne.
Black chalk, brush and grey ink, grey wash, 234 x 358 mm.
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin. Inv. no. KdZ 13466
[5] Frederik de Moucheron, River landscape.
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin. Inv. no. KdZ 3947.
[6] see Peter Schatborn, Drawings by Jan Worst.
Master Drawings, Vol.58, number 1, 2020. p.29-78.
[7] Willem Romeyn, Group of Italian houses in Rome or it's surroundings.
Pen and black ink, brush and grey ink, grey wash, 238 x 342 mm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. RP-T-1960-212.
[8] First hand assessment of the original, Antwerp, 16 January 2024.
