inscribed and dated ‘prês de Sala. a 3 L[…] de Parme. 1787’ and with inscription ‘ra,a/ ug’ (verso)
graphite, pen and grey ink, brown wash, fragmentary proprietary watermark, pen and black ink framing lines
28 x 21.6 cm

Provenance:
Private collection, The Netherlands.

Daniel Dupré was first trained by the landscape painter Johannes van Dregt (1737-1807), and continued his training under Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819) at the Stadstekenacademie (drawing academy) in Amsterdam.[1] Specializing in landscape painting at the Stadstekenacademie, Dupré would go on to dedicate the entirety of his artistic career to this genre, albeit expressing it through a different medium, that of drawing. The majority of Dupré’s drawn œuvre consists of sheets made during the artist’s extensive travels. His first journey took him to Switzerland (1783), after which he continued his travels to the Rhine River, and trips to Mannheim and Dusseldorf in 1783.[2] In 1786, Dupré submitted a painting to the Oeconomischen Tak van de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (a society to promote trade, industry and prosperity) in Haarlem, to showcase his abilities as a painter.[3] The society praised Dupré’s work and granted him a scholarship and awarded him with a stipend of 50 ducats per year to travel and study works of art in Germany and Italy. This sojourn, which lasted 4 years (1786-1790), resulted in a large number of meticulously executed drawings (often inscribed by the artist on the verso with the location of the drawing), which give us a clear idea of the artist’s travels and the landscapes, towns and cities he encountered.[4]
The present drawing is dated 1787 and was executed during this journey. The inscription on the verso furthermore states that the sheet shows a wooded landscape near the town of Sala, in the province of Parma- a subject that appears in a number of Dupré’s drawing. Another sheet showing such a view, with the aqueduct of Sala, is in the Fogg Museum, Harvard.[5] That drawing is dated 1796 and must have been executed after a drawing made during his Italian journey, probably back in Holland in the artist’s studio.

[1] R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der Vaderlandsche Schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIII eeuw, Haarlem, 1830 [reprint, Amsterdam, 1979], vol. II, p. 394.
[2] R.. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, op. cit., p. 394.
[3] ibid., p. 394.
[4] A particularly large group, including a large number of sheets from the I.Q. van Regteren Altena collection (gifted in 2013) of the artist’s drawings can be found in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. See also I. Oud, M. Jonker and M. Schapelhouman, In de Ban van Italië: Tekeningen uit een Amsterdamse Verzameling, Amsterdam, 1995, nos. 43-49.
[5] inv. 1898.40.