Virgil Solis (1514-1562) Lot n° 11

Virgil Solis (1514-1562) - Mercenary - VS signed drawing / Description: Landsknecht (mercenary) walking in a landscape with right arm up. Signed in ink bottom left corner. Ca.154. This VS signed drawing is very similar to a drawing preserved in the British Museum under number 1874,0808.2276 as a drawing by Solis. I added the one in the British museum (left) and this one (right) here on auction side by side as last image for reference only. Our drawing is also connected to one of Solis etchings from a series of eleven lansquenets, more specific the standard-bearer (Hollstein 143). As it is drawn in a more linear way, not a line to line copy and shows only a fraction of the cross hatching, our drawing might fit in a group of contemporary drawings as described by Inge,O’Dell, Francke (Die handzeichnungen Virgil Solis, Univ Göttingen, 1967), made in the of workshop of Solis and meant to be sold as independent works of art. . / Dimensions: 10,00 by 8,90 cm / Condition: Pen drawing in black ink, cut out on the outline of the figures and landscape and mounted on a laid paper. / Literature: • Rowlands 1993- LITERATURE: Franke, Solis Handz., p. 66f., cat. no. A40 -----Comment on the item by the British Museum: This is executed in a manner closely akin to two drawings of landsknechts in Bamberg, Staatliche Bibliothek (Franke, 'Solis Handz’., cat. nos. A3, 4), both of which are dated 1541, and like them it is by the best hand associated with Solis, which may be accepted as the artist's own. ---- Bibliographic references: Rowlands 1993 / Drawings by German artists and artists from German-speaking regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: the 15thC & 16thC by Artists born before 1530 (465) ----- Inge (O’Dell-) Francke Die handzeichnungen Virgil Solis, Univ Göttingen, 1967) / Medium: Ink drawing /Circa: Ca.1541 1200