An Album of 39 Watercolors of Fish and Other Sea Creatures

DUTCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY An Album of 39 Watercolors of Fish and Other Sea Creatures Watercolor over traces of black chalk, within black chalk framing lines; almost all inscribed in brown ink, verso, with identification and measurements of the fish depicted; the 39 drawings attached to 20 album sheets, loosely contained in an early 19th-century folder (spine in disrepair), with a label inscribed in brown ink: 41 Stuks / Visschen in Sapverwen / door / Rochus van Veen / 17e Eeuw / Uit de Collectie / van / DenwelEd Heer Ploos van Amstel Two drawings fixed to each album sheet (in all except one case), the album sheets 16 1/8 x 12 3/8 in. Provenance: Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (according to the label on the album cover) In 17th-century Holland, the art of natural history drawing took on a new significance. As never before, artists produced a great series of high-quality watercolors, combining very scientific observation and annotation with considerable artistic and aesthetic quality. However, most such watercolors depict flowers or, less frequently, insects or land animals, and representations of fish from this period are relatively rare. Loca:6.3BC.19C. …