signed and inscribed ‘bij den Helder/ Capitain Bagelaar/ ad viv. fecit.’ (verso); ‘op ‘t Eyland vlie/ capitain Bagelaar ad viv fecit/ het Eyland terschelling in ’t verschiet’ (verso); ‘verbranden van het/verzylde Engels Fregat/ [...] oorlog [...] eine op 21 febr./ 1803 voor ’t vlie/ bagelaar ad viv fecit’ (recto) and ‘Capitain Bagelaar/ ad viv. fecit’ (verso); ‘Capitain Bagelaar/ ad viv. fecit op ’t vlie’ (verso)
pen and grey ink, grey wash, two with pen and brown ink framing lines, watermarks Pro Patria
each circa 16 x 20.1 cm

Provenance:
Possibly the artist’s estate; Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 23 March 1868, part of lot 80 (‘E.W.J. Bagelaar. Collection considerable de dessins et études, dans une portefeuille’).

At the tender age of fourteen, Bagelaar entered military service as a cadet. He swiftly ascended the ranks, progressing from lieutenant to captain, and then to major, before retiring at the age of forty in 1814. In 1798, while stationed in Alkmaar, Bagelaar visited the artist and collector J.P. Klinkhamer, which ignited his interest in creating his own art. According to Van Eijnden en Van der Willigen, he spent the little spare time he had during his military career drawing. [1] After being introduced to Abraham Bosse’s Traité des manières de graver en taille-douce in 1802, Bagelaar began producing prints, eventually creating a body of work that included some 300 etchings.

Many of Bagelaar’s most interesting drawings were produced during his military campaigns. These campaigns took him to Texel (1797), Germany and Austria (1800-1801), Prussia (1806-1808), Paris (1811) and Hamburg (1813-1814). One series of drawings, still on their original mounts and bound in an album, made during a campaign in 1800 in Germany, is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. [2] The mounts of those drawings, and the inscriptions they carry, can be closely compared to the present four previously unpublished drawings. One of the present drawings depicts a view of Den Helder,
while the other three show landscapes on the island of Vlieland. Interestingly, few other drawings documenting his time on Vlieland are known and as such these drawings add valuable information about the artist’s travels at the time. The sheet showing a frigate on fire off the coast of Vlieland is dated ’21 febr. 1803’, providing a clear date and location, which could also suggest a possible date for the others.

Another drawing of Vlieland, dated 1804 and depicting the village of Oost-Vlieland, was sold at auction in 2004, but its present whereabouts are unknown. [3] A further drawing from 1804, showing a dune landscape on Vlieland with a flock of sheep, is in the Noord- Hollands archief. [4] According to Bagelaar’s inscription on the verso of that sheet, the herdsman with his flock of sheep are drawn after a composition by Jan Luyken (1649- 1712). Interestingly, the seated artist in that drawing is the same as the one in the dune landscape in one of the present drawings. Given the fact that the present drawing was probably drawn in or around 1803, it seems plausible that the drawing in the Noord- Hollands archief was made after the present sheet. The drawing depicting a nocturnal view of Vlieland can be closely compared to another nocturnal drawing, executed in 1817, which is now in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. [5]


[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. III, p. 189.
[2] Inv. RP-T-1919-1 to RP-T-1919-13.
[3] Anonymous sale; J.L. Beijers, Utrecht, 2-3 November 2004 [lot number unknown]; see for an image; https://www.bagelaar.nl/tekeningen/t068-oost-vlieland-op-het-eiland-vlieland [accessed 8 August 2024].
[4] Inv. 6001.
[5] Inv. PAK 3965