Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
Born into a prominent family of Dutch marine painters, Adriaen van de Velde was admired as a landscape painter. He specialized in atmospheric pastoral scenes that feature livestock and rustic figures drawn from life. This intimate study of a shepherdess searching for fleas exemplifies the artist’s skilled use of red chalk to capture the effects of light and shade.
Inscriptions
upper left, in blue pencil: VX ; VERSO OF QUATERNARY SUPPORT, upper center, in graphite: [mln?][upside down]
Provenance
L. Suzor, Paris Léon Suzor, Paris (according to departmental cataloging sheet/card). [Otto Wertheimer, Paris]
Exhibition history
Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966). Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 29-June 6, 1967). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-August 1, 1982). Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983). Netherlandish Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10-December 31, 1989). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Adriaen van de Velde (Dutch, 1636–1672)
- Date
- c. 1671
- Medium
- red chalk over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 18.4 x 23.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 18.4 x 23.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 3/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1966.239
More by Adriaen van de Velde 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-00011051
Powered by Art Trackers