Inscribed J van Goyen (lower left) in pen and black ink and numbered on the verso also in pen and black ink N 412, black chalk

98 x 150 mm. (3 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.)

Although van Goyen, unlike so many of his fellow artists, never left Holland to study in Italy, van Goyen made a number of long journeys which can be traced through the albums of drawings in which he recorded his impressions of the changing landscape and architecture. From the 1630s he made short journeys in the environs of Leyden and later around Haarlem and the Hague; in the 1640s he travelled south-east along the Rhine to Emmerich and Elten and in about 1648 he went south towards Antwerp and Brussels. As van Goyen was a specialist painter and draftsman of landscapes such journeys were important in suggesting new motifs, both architectural and geographical, which the flat landscape around Leiden and Amsterdam could not provide.

Scheveningen, originally a fishing village on the Northern Dutch coast near The Hague and was painted and drawn by Van Goyen on many occasions, there is a painting of The Beach at Scheveningen, dated 1646 is in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Beck dates our drawing to circa 1645-50, and compares it to 3 other drawings with the same 1960 provenance. It appears that all three have the same 18th century inscription.