"By D. Juan Estems, a native German; died in Andalusia."[1] Nothing aside from this note in Echeverria's inventory is known about this artist, even considering alternate spellings of his name (Stehms, Steems, etc.).
The drawing presents a costumbrista scene in a rural setting, with a farmhouse set in a landscape and various figures.
The format and subject are reminiscent of a print with small landscapes engraved by the brothers Johannes van Doetecum I (active 1551-1605) and Lucas van Doetecum (active 1554-died before 1584), after compositions by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) and the so-called Master of Small Landscapes, published by Hieronymus Cock (ca. 1510-1570) in Antwerp in 1559-61.[2]
The tenuous nature of the pigment on the paper suggests it may be an offprint, obtained by contact transfer to this sheet from an original work.

Jens Hoffmann-Samland


1 In the "Escuela Italiana” from the Echeverría inventory: "5. De D. Juan Estems, natural de Alemania; murió en Andalucía."
2 New Hollstein 2006 (Pieter Bruegel the Elder), 197-251. See the catalogue González de Zárate (ed.) 1993, 128–39.

Details about this work

• Provenance

  [José Atanasio Echeverría]; Julian Benjamin Williams, Seville (d. 1866); John Wetherell (?) (d. 1865); Horatio/Nathan Wetherell (?) (until 1874); Frederick William Cosens, London (from 1874 to 1890); Sotheby's, London, auction of the property of Frederick William Cosens (from November 11 to 21, 1890); Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London (from November 1890 to July 1891); acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (July 14, 1891).

• Bibliography

  The Spanish Gesture. Drawings from Murillo to Goya in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Jens Hoffmann-Samland, with contributions by María Cruz de Carlos Varona, Gabriele Finaldi, José Manuel Matilla u. a., 2014, S. 201, Abb., Abb.-Nr. , Kat.-Nr. 45