Anthonie Waterloo (Dutch, 1609–1690) - Landscape by Moonlight, ca 1676

 

Anthonie Waterloo (Dutch, 1609–1690) - Landscape by Moonlight, ca 1676
25.8 x 18 cm, Black chalk and brush and black ink with gray and grayish black wash heightened with white, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anthonie Waterloo, a productive topographical draftsman, sketched the landscape in and around his native Utrecht. He also travelled west to Brussels and east to northern Germany, and as far as Gdańsk. This drawing recalls the countryside on Holland’s eastern border as well as the wooded area around Brussels. Waterloo made many drawings of these areas, often in black chalk and gray wash heightened with white. His darkly shaded wooded views nicely capture contrasting light in the voids. The strip of paper seamed to the lower edge is the artist’s own addition. Waterloo has recycled a fragment of one of his letters, for the reverse bears his penmanship.