A Horseshoe Crab

Inscriptions

Inscribed center, below the head, in pen and brown ink: “PH”; lower right, in pen and brown ink: “zeespinnekop”

Provenance

Possibly, Dr. P.; sold, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, Jan. 24, 1887, lot 95 [according to Daxer & Marschall, but without illustrations, this is impossible to confirm]. Private collection, Winterthur and Zurich, to 1957; by descent to a private collection, Winterthur and Meilen, to 2004; by descent; sold by Daxer & Marschall Kunsthandel, Munich, to a private collector, New York, 2013; sold through Daxer & Marschall Kunsthandel, Munich, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2020.

Publications

Thea Vignau-Wilberg, Pieter Holsteijn the Younger, Haarlem 1614–1673 Amsterdam: Diverse Crawling and Flying Animals (Munich: Daxer & Marschall, 2013), p. 34, no. 5 (color ill.).

Quick Overview

Artist: Pieter Holsteyn, the younger / Dutch, 1614–1687
Date: 1640/80
Medium: Watercolor and opaque watercolor on cream laid paper
Dimensions: 16.3 × 21.4 cm (6 7/16 × 8 7/16 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: prints and drawing
Place: Netherlands
Department: Prints and Drawings
Credit line: Regenstein Endowment Fund
Accession no.: 2020.264

More by Pieter Holsteyn, the younger in museum collections

Megasoma Elephas or Megaceras Jason and Six Other Insects
Pieter Holsteyn, the younger
1640/80 · Drawing
Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00006220

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.