A book of immaculate drawings that has been stewarded by the Van Eeghen family in the Netherlands for more than three centuries has been donated to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it will go on view starting August 19.
In a press release, the museum said, “The Van Eeghen Drawing Book can be considered a new highlight of the Rijksmuseum Print Room Collection, as well as one of the most significant additions to this collection in recent years.” The institution also noted that it is exceptionally rare for a 17th-century drawing book—“carefully kept and passed down from generation to generation”—to have survived completely intact.
Attribution for the book had long been unknown until around two decades ago, when a connection was established with Rombout Uylenburgh, a Dutch painter who worked at the Polish royal court in Kraków, and his workshop. The exhibition opening around the book will include “a substantial part of Uylenburgh’s small surviving body of work,” according to the Rijksmuseum.
About the book—which features around 30 drawings, including a series of biblical scenes—Taco Dibbits, the museum’s general director, said, “The Van Eeghen Drawing Book is a highlight of Dutch draughtsmanship. The donation enables the Rijksmuseum to introduce everyone to Rombout Uylenburgh, a fascinating artist of whom very little work has survived. We are extremely grateful to the Van Eeghen family for this generous gift, which is in keeping with a long-standing family tradition.”
The Rijksmuseum also noted that, because the drawings have rarely been exposed to light, the colors are “still as striking as they were 400 years ago.”
