# Verification addendum: public sources checked on 26 September 2026

This note was added when the dossier was updated. It records public sources read on 26 September 2026 and states, for each, what the source supports and where its limit lies. No enquiry was sent and nothing was purchased while it was prepared.

## Sotheby's lot 141: the catalogue note

**SOURCE-REPORTED.** Sotheby's online catalogue keeps a page for [lot 141 of *Old Master Drawings*, London, 6 July 2005, sale L05040](https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/old-master-drawings-l05040/lot.141.html). It repeats the printed description: Dutch School, 17th Century, *a young man in a hat seated at a table, filling his pipe*; "bears pencil inscription, lower left: Terburg"; black and white chalk on blue paper.

The printed page 159, in the supplied PDF, and the online page carry the same catalogue note:

> One can easily imagine finding a figure based on this study from life in a painting by one of the *Bamboccianti*. Little is, however, known of the figure drawing style of most of those artists, so until this figure is actually found in a painting, this highly accomplished study must remain unattributed. The clue to its authorship may perhaps lie in the fact that although the figure type and approach to lighting seem strongly Italianate, there is also a certain stylistic affinity with figure drawings by Rembrandt school artists such as Backer and Flinck.

The printed page gives an estimate of **£5,000–7,000** (€7,300–10,200; US$9,200–12,900). Neither the page nor the online entry records a result.

**What this changes.** The 2005 cataloguer recorded the "Terburg" inscription but did not discuss it. The stylistic suggestion pointed instead to the *Bamboccianti*, painters of Roman street life, and to Rembrandt-school figure drawings by Jacob Backer and Govert Flinck. That is a 2005 opinion about lot 141, not evidence of authorship, and it concerns the present sheet only through the shared composition. It should be read beside the Ter Borch lead, not beneath it.

## Provenance fields for lot 141

**SOURCE-REPORTED.** The online entry for lot 141 has no provenance section. Feldmann property in the same sale is identified explicitly: [lot 33](https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/old-master-drawings-l05040/lot.33.html), for example, records Arthur Feldmann, Brno; seizure by the Gestapo; the Moravian museum in Brno; and restitution to Feldmann's heirs in 2003. A contemporary [ARTnews report of 19 July 2005](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/european-buyers-heat-up-londons-old-master-sales-1957/) described the Feldmann group as 55 drawings in a sale of 244 lots; dealers list the catalogue as 243 lots. [RKD 116036](https://rkd.nl/images/116036), last updated on 9 April 2024, lists as provenance only this sale: Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2005, lot 141. It records no literature or exhibitions.

**Limit.** A lot printed without provenance has an undocumented earlier history, not a known one. Neither Sotheby's nor RKD supplies a Feldmann provenance for lot 141, so statements that the RKD sheet came from the Feldmann collection remain unsupported. Neither source says anything about the present sheet.

## Backer and Flinck: the comparison the catalogue named

**SOURCE-REPORTED.** Museum records document figure studies in black and white chalk on blue paper by both artists named in the note:

- [Albertina, Vienna, inv. 10212](https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/objects/10070): Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, *Knee-length figure of a man with hat and cloak, seated before a table*, black and white chalk on blue paper, 27.4 × 21.5 cm; formerly attributed to Jürgen Ovens; Sumowski I, no. 64x.
- [Rijksmuseum RP-T-1977-40](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Zittende-oude-man-met-kleed-over-zijn-schoot--7857d459edb9672ebc6734e2d24b3396): Govert Flinck, *Seated old man with a cloth over his lap*, 1657–59, black and white chalk on blue paper, 230 × 213 mm. The record lists Backer as a rejected attribution.
- [Ackland Art Museum 2017.1.1](https://peck.ackland.org/artworks/study-of-a-seated-boy-gazing-downward): Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, *Study of a Seated Boy, Gazing Downward*, c. 1640–50, black and white chalk on blue-grey paper, 29.3 × 22.6 cm.

**Limit.** These records show that the medium and the seated figure study were current in Backer's and Flinck's circle, and the Rijksmuseum record shows how readily attributions move between the two. The medium does not identify an artist. Ter Borch family drawings in black and white chalk on blue paper are also documented, for example Rijksmuseum RP-T-1887-A-1048(R) and RP-T-1887-A-1046. None of the three records mentions RKD 116036 or the present sheet. They are cited without images, and no comparison of hands is claimed. At 352 × 251 mm, lot 141 is larger than all three sheets.

## Watermark records re-read

> **Status, prepared 5 October 2026.** The A-1327 note below records the public metadata as read on 26 September 2026, including *Schild met kroon*. Kettering part I, p. 296, consulted later, treats that mark as a possible lamb fragment in a crowned shield. It is not the current lily lead. See [research note 15](/en/research/rembrandt-school/young-draughtsman-drawing/notes#note-15).

- **SOURCE-REPORTED.** [Rijksmuseum RP-T-1887-A-1327](https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200512324), *Boy squatting to relieve himself beside a dog*, attributed to Moses ter Borch, c. 1656–57. Pen in brown, 93 × 158 mm. The Dutch object page gives "watermerk, gedrukt: Schild met kroon"; the English page says only "watermark". It cites Kettering M 18, vol. I, p. 296 (illustrated), and places the sheet in a group, M 8–M 20, attributed to Moses. It is a small pen drawing, so it is a lead for paper documentation, not a stylistic comparison.
- **SOURCE-REPORTED.** [Rijksmuseum RP-T-1887-A-1174](https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200118029), school of Rembrandt, which descended through the Ter Borch family. "Crown with a fleur-de-lis" appears in the technical notes of the online scientific catalogue entry (Schatborn 2018), not in the object metadata. This confirms that a metadata search can miss recorded watermarks.
- **SOURCE-REPORTED.** [Städel 923 Z](https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/stehender-juengling-in-marineuniform), Moses ter Borch, records the watermark "B mit Krone".
- **SOURCE-REPORTED.** [The Watermarks Project](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/research/our-research/conservation-science/science/the-watermarks-project) began in 2024. It plans to radiograph about 4,000 drawings over two years and compiles a preliminary index, and it intends to make results freely available online in due course.

## The complete 2005 catalogue

- **SOURCE-REPORTED, checked 26 September 2026.** The [AbeBooks listing 30474485400](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30474485400) is live at **US$64.58**, condition Good. The seller is thecatalogstarcom Ltd, Westbury, United Kingdom, and the listing quotes free shipping to the USA in 14–21 business days, dispatched from the seller's depot in India. This is the same dealer as [The Catalog Star, stock 14449](https://www.thecatalogstar.com/index.php?cPath=3_4&main_page=product_info&products_id=14449), which lists **£29**, two in stock, 243 lots, 253 pages and 1,070 g. The two listings are one seller, not two independent copies.
- **SOURCE-REPORTED, checked 26 September 2026.** [Klondyke, book no. 408436-LB7](https://www.klondyke.nl/boek/408436/sothebys/old-master-drawings-including-property-from-the-arthur-feldmann-collection), a Dutch bookseller, lists the same title at **€15.00**: paperback, 278 pages, condition Good, shipping extra.
- **SOURCE-REPORTED.** Library copies are recorded at the [National Gallery of Art Library, Washington](https://library.nga.gov/discovery/fulldisplay/alma99883993704896/01NGA_INST:AUC), shelved as "SLN July 6-7, 2005" and described as 278 p. with "Price list included", and at the [University of Notre Dame, Hesburgh Library](https://findit.library.nd.edu/Record/006551838), call number NC 225 .S68 2005b.
- **UNVERIFIED.** The page count differs: 253 in the dealer's listing, 278 in the library and Klondyke records. The difference may lie in how preliminary pages were counted.

**INFERRED research value.** A copy with the price list could show whether lot 141 sold in 2005, and at what price. Consulting a library copy would answer that before any purchase. None of these listings has been ordered.

## A dated Moses ter Borch portrait with a broad-brimmed hat

**SOURCE-REPORTED, checked 26 September 2026.** [Rijksmuseum RP-T-1887-A-1042](https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200471307), Moses ter Borch, *Portrait of Gerard ter Borch the Elder*. Black chalk heightened with white chalk, some black brush, on blue paper, 287 × 230 mm; made in Zwolle. The recto inscription, in pen and brown ink and recorded as the father's handwriting, reads "Mosus ter Borch. nae het leven getijckent den 23. Januarij 1660". The museum cites Kettering M 54, vol. I, pp. 316–317 (illustrated), and gives the work as public domain. The image was downloaded from the museum at the dossier editor's request.

**INFERRED comparison.** The hat has a very broad brim and a raised, round-topped crown, with hair below the brim and parallel hatching on the brim, as on the present sheet. The medium matches the RKD catalogue description of RKD 116036. Subject, view and medium differ from the present sheet. The drawing dates one example of this hat type to January 1660; an elderly sitter may keep an older fashion, so it does not date the present sheet, and a hat type is not a criterion of hand. The father's pen annotation is not a model for the pencil "Terburg" reported on lot 141.

## Gerard ter Borch the Elder, Girl Reading

**SOURCE-REPORTED, checked 26 September 2026.** [Rijksmuseum RP-T-1887-A-764](https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200471220), Gerard ter Borch (I), *Girl Reading* or *Portrait of a Girl Reading a Book*, c. 1630–1635, made in Zwolle. Pen in brown, brush in brown and grey, red chalk, 97 × 88 mm. The museum records the inscription "Ger Sr; G Ter Borch Sr" and describes the sheet as signed by the artist; it cites Kettering GSr 107, vol. I, pp. 78–79 (illustrated). The [Wikimedia Commons file](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gerard_ter_Borch_the_Elde_Girl_Reading_1630s.jpg) suggested by the dossier editor names the girl as probably the artist's eldest daughter Anna; the current museum record does not. The museum's higher-resolution image is used.

**INFERRED comparison.** An absorbed figure, head bowed and eyes lowered to the hands, in brown pen with brush. In the reproduction the washes stay within the figure on an untouched ground, a parallel inside the Ter Borch family to the local, contour-bound wash of the present sheet. The modelling is carried by wash, not serial hatching. One small sheet, a generation or more earlier and by the father; it does not narrow the hand or identify the sitter.

## Korevaar and Tauber 2014, read in full

**SOURCE-REPORTED.** Gerbrand Korevaar and Gwen Tauber, "Gerard ter Borch Repeats: On Autograph Portrait Copies in the Work of Ter Borch (1617-1681)", *The Rijksmuseum Bulletin* 62/4 (2014), pp. 348–381, [doi:10.52476/trb.9852](https://doi.org/10.52476/trb.9852). It was read in full from a copy supplied by the dossier editor. The article is cited, not republished.

- The subject is two pairs of painted portraits: Godard van Reede (Rijksmuseum; Slot Zuylen) and Jacob de Graeff (Rijksmuseum; Saint Louis Art Museum). The authors conclude that Ter Borch painted both versions of each pair (pp. 349, 376–377). No drawing comparable to the present sheet or RKD 116036 is studied.
- **Ordering criterion.** The Oud-Zuilen portrait follows the final painted hairline of the Rijksmuseum portrait and lacks its single pentimento (p. 361). The corrected eye position of the Amsterdam De Graeff was copied to Saint Louis (p. 376).
- **Transfer evidence.** Short, faint parallel lines shifted by 2–3 mm are read as the double register of a mechanical transfer (p. 362). Note 11 (p. 378) defines tracing through a blackened or whitened verso, pouncing through pinpricks, and the counterproof, a mirror image. Blackened versos survive in the Ter Borch family drawings (pp. 352–353, fig. 3). Free-hand copying at a larger or smaller size, with the parts kept in proportion, is documented for Gerard II (p. 353, fig. 4).
- **Handling.** The Saint Louis portrait is freer to the point that "one might suspect another hand"; shared pentimenti and construction keep it with Ter Borch, and it also has minor pentimenti of its own (p. 376).
- **Pupils.** Note 4 (p. 377) lists Caspar Netscher, Antoni Jordens and Bartholt Berentsen as documented pupils in Deventer, with Pieter van Anraedt and Roelof Koets accepted as working in the studio. The authors write that no artist in the immediate circle equalled the master (p. 349).

**INFERRED application.** The present sheet and RKD 116036 face the same way in the superposition, so a counterproof is not their direct relation. Their reported sheet sizes differ (about 206 × 153 mm and 352 × 251 mm); the figures have not been measured. If the figures differ in size as the sheets do, none of the three same-size transfer methods linked them directly. The ordering criterion cannot yet be applied: the multiple RKD back boundaries and the possible first placement at the hat crown of the present sheet are not resolved in the available reproductions. Four physical checks are added to the conservation session: the verso for blackening or chalk rubbing, raking light for stylus indentation, transmitted light for pinpricks, and magnification for doubled lines. A negative result would not exclude free-hand copying.

## Photograph orientation

**OBSERVED.** Several custodian photographs were published sideways or reversed. They are now shown with the sitter's head up, each change recorded in its caption. IMG_6606, IMG_6608 and IMG_6612 were turned a quarter turn clockwise, and IMG_6609, IMG_6610 and IMG_6611 a quarter turn anticlockwise. IMG_6605 showed the drawing upside down and reversed, probably because it was taken through the back of the sheet; it is flipped to read as the front. The close view of the wire shape and the in-situ view of the watermark were turned a quarter turn clockwise, and the hand-held support view was mirrored. Turned upright, the in-situ view shows the partial wire figure at the left edge, beside the sitter's back, lying on its side. The earlier description, "lower edge … under the seat", was an effect of the sideways display and has been corrected.

**References:** the online pages linked above, read on 26 September 2026; Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2005, lot 141, printed page 159, from the supplied PDF; Korevaar and Tauber 2014, as cited above.