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About the Artwork
These three drawings, which depict seated peasants at a market in the city and a team of horses led by a herder on horseback, are part of a group of approximately 80 observational drawings by Savery. His farmers, market vendors, and other everyday people are never posed and rarely glance at the viewer. Savery marked each drawing with detailed instructions regarding the colors to be used later and the words naer het leven (from the life). The works were made in Prague when Savery was employed at the court of the great patron and art collector Emperor Rudolf II, demonstrating that interest in peasant life extended even to the highest echelons of society.
Inscriptions
by artist, upper left, in brown ink: omberne / hoet ; by artist, upper right, in brown ink: gr[y?]sse hoed [=gray hat]; by artist, upper center, in black chalk: [illegible] ; by artist, upper center, in black chalk: [illegible] ; by artist, left center, in brown ink: [brúinockker?] rock [=brown-ochre mantel]; by artist, center, in brown ink: zwartter rock [=black mantel]; by artist, lower left, in brown ink: [nart?] het leuen [=taken from life]; VERSO, lower left, in blue pencil: WCA805 / WCA803
Exhibition history
Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). Prints and Drawings by Pieter Bruegel. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (March 23-May 7, 1961). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964). Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965). Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965). Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968). Netherlandish Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10-December 31, 1989). Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (October 9, 2022-January 8, 2023).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Roelant Savery (Flemish, 1576–1639)
- Date
- c. 1600
- Medium
- Pen and light- and dark-brown inks over preliminary drawing in black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 15.1 x 18.8 cm (5 15/16 x 7 3/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1945.114
Provenance
?-1931: Oscar Huldschinsky, Berlin 1931: his sale, Paul Graupe, Berlin, November 3, 1931, no. 23 c. 1931-?: Karl Rudolf (?), Berlin ?-?: David Birnbaum, New York 1945: with Knoedler & Co., New York 1945-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
More by Roelant Savery in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010962
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