SOUTHERN & NORTHERN NETHERLANDISH DRAWINGS PROJECT

Researching and cataloguing over 800 drawings produced in the modern-day regions of Belgium and The Netherlands from 1450 to 1800

This research project was initiated in 2022 while preparing the Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition Bruegel to Rubens: Great Flemish Drawings (23 March – 23 June 2024) and is ongoing.

Simplified map of the Northern and Southern Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries

Research aims

The project aim is the systematic study and cataloguing of more than 800 drawings produced between 1450 and 1800 by artists born and/or active in the regions corresponding to present-day Belgium, The Netherlands, Northern France and Luxembourg.

Combining traditional drawings scholarship with digital approaches, the project seeks to reassess this significant but under-researched part of the Ashmolean’s collection.

Despite the exceptional quality of the drawings, the group had never been fully catalogued and required sustained research into questions of attribution, iconography, and function.

About the research project

The collection includes works by major figures such as Lucas van Leyden, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens, alongside numerous others.

Just over 250 drawings were published by K.T. Parker in his 1938 collections catalogue, but the present project aims to produce the first comprehensive catalogue of the drawings collection, including works acquired since that date.

Earlier attempts to update Parker’s catalogue date back to the early 1980s, when, under the directorship of Dr Christopher White, Jane Turner undertook preparatory research, primarily on the Dutch drawings. Although this work remained unpublished, Turner’s confidential research files – now preserved in the Western Art departmental archives – have been consulted for the current project with her generous permission, allowing continuity with earlier phases of scholarship.

Apollo and the Muses, Jan Boeckhorst, c. 1666–1667, brush in brown ink with brown wash, heightened with white opaque watercolour, over black chalk. WA1952.50 © Ashmolean Museum

Study of a Nude Male Torso, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1610, charcoal (wettened & partly stumped), heightened with white chalk, on laid oatmeal paper. WA1855.154 © Ashmolean Museum

Research undertaken during the course of the project has drawn on, and contributed to, a range of related scholarly activities. An Van Camp’s individual publications informed the project’s methodology and case studies, including a survey of the Ashmolean’s cartoon fragments for the papal Scuola Nuova tapestry cycle, produced in a Brussels workshop.

Further in-depth research was carried out in preparation for the exhibition catalogue Bruegel to Rubens, which brought together over 120 drawings from the Antwerp and Oxford collections, including just over 40 sheets from the Ashmolean, and which directly fed into the cataloguing of the Ashmolean holdings.

Portrait of an Old Man (Rembrandt's Father), Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, c. 1627–1630, red and black chalk, with brown wash, on laid paper. Detail. WA1855.11 © Ashmolean Museum

A Witches' Kitchen, Jacques de Gheyn the Younger, 1604, pen in brown ink with grey-brown wash, on laid paper. WA1863.169 © Ashmolean Museum

Of particular importance were an experts’ meeting and a public study day organised in May 2024 in conjunction with the Bruegel to Rubens exhibition, which brought together over a dozen leading international specialists in the field of Southern Netherlandish drawings.

More recently, the GLAM-SPK branch of the Oxford–Berlin Research Partnership generously supported further research through a two-week exchange between the Ashmolean Museum and the Kupferstichkabinett (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), undertaken by An Van Camp and Christien Melzer between October 2025 and January 2026.

Material-technical research was also conducted in parallel, in close collaboration with the Ashmolean’s Paper Conservation team and Oxford’s ArchiOx (Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Oxford) programme, examining the papers and their watermarks, as well as informing questions of technique, condition, and function.

An Van Camp would like to thank Maud van Suylen, Sophie Croasdale, Sophie Scott, and Bianca Arthur-Hull for their assistance over the years on this project.

This catalogue of drawings represents an ongoing work in progress, and not all entries are equally exhaustive at this stage.

In January 2026, An Van Camp left the Ashmolean Museum to take up the post of Curator at the Rubenshuis in Antwerp. It is hoped that the project will continue in the future, further advancing the study and accessibility of this important collection.

Attributing drawings to artists

An attribution is the identification of the authorship of an artwork. Undisputed attributions can only be made when a work is signed, however, the majority of 16th- and 17th-century drawings were not marked as such by their creators.

Unsigned sheets can still be attributed to an individual artist if they can be compared stylistically to other signed sheets, or if they can be matched to other artworks, such as paintings and sculptures, which tend to be better documented or even signed. Even when no related work can be found, the characteristic style of an artist or the use of a specific medium, can lead to an attribution, albeit tentative in some instances.

Because attributing works of art remains challenging, degrees of certainty must be expressed. The following terms have been used throughout the digital collections catalogue:

• By [or simply the name of the draughtsperson]: firm attribution
• Attributed to: very likely, but more evidence might be needed for the attribution to be fully accepted
• Workshop/Studio of: an unnamed draughtsperson working in the workshop of the artist, often a collaborator or assistant supervised by the artist
• Circle of: an artist working close to the artist but not working directly in his workshop
• Follower of: an artist working in the same style, often later in date than the artist
• After: when the composition is after a known work
• Anonymous: when the draughtsperson is unknown