Catalogue of the Drawings of Hendrick van Cleve III (c. 1525–c. 1590)

Elise Boutsen (Bernaerts Auctioneers, Antwerp, Belgium)

Henrick van Cleve III, Capriccio of Rome, 1588. Pen in brown, gray-blue, red-brown and light brown wash, 173 x 254 mm. Antwerp, private collection — Henrick van Cleve III, *Capriccio of Rome,* 1588. Pen in brown, gray-blue, red-brown and light brown wash, 173 x 254 mm. Antwerp, private collection

Henrick van Cleve III, *Capriccio of Rome,* 1588. Pen in brown, gray-blue, red-brown and light brown wash, 173 x 254 mm. Antwerp, private collection

The goal of my research is to create an oeuvre catalogue of the drawings of the Flemish artist Hendrick van Cleve (c. 1525–c. 1590), who mainly drew Italianate fantasy landscapes. The lack of any monographic research has resulted in many erroneous attributions and thus a distorted image of his oeuvre. Nonetheless, many of his drawings are housed at important public and private collections all over Europe, Russia, and the U.S. Until now, the catalogue includes sixty sheets of which a large part is signed and dated. Most of the drawings are Italianate ‘fantasy’ landscapes, which could also be described as early capriccios. This research attempts to position Hendrick van Cleve in the evolution of the genre, especially his role amongst the Northern European artists in the development of the capriccio. The oeuvre catalogue will be published as an article with an illustrated oeuvre catalogue as addendum.
During the Curatorial Research Fellowship at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, I focused on two specific elements of my research. First, I located historical sources to affirm and situate Van Cleve’s stay in Rome. Thanks to Karel van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck (1604), we can assume he visited Rome and travelled through Italy. Yet the date of this journey is still unknown and we are similarly still uninformed about his activities there. Second, I was able to study the function and interpretation of his rather special imaginary Italianate landscapes thanks to the literature present in the extensive Hertziana library. The presence of other institutions in the city of Rome greatly benefited my research. In the Instituto Centrale per la Grafica, I was able to study several of Van Cleve’s sheets first hand. Also, the vicinity of the Academia Belgica, with landscape specialist Sabine van Sprang as director, offered interesting opportunities.