A Soldier Loading a Musket, "Ramme in Your Pouder"

Prints and Drawings

1596/98

Jacques de Gheyn II
Dutch 1565-1629

Jacques de Gheyn produced over 100 drawings for a groundbreaking 1607 Dutch military manual The Exercise of Arms. The drawings, a series of images that capture precise military maneuvers and show the appropriate tackle for each type of soldier, were then engraved for publication.

For A Soldier Loading a Musket, de Gheyn drew the figure clearly and confidently with thin brown lines, adding gray wash to suggest volume and texture. This clarity was necessary for the engraver who would copy it onto a copper plate. In the printed version, a command instructed the soldier to ram powder into their musket.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Jacob de Gheyn, II
Title: A Soldier Loading a Musket, "Ramme in Your Pouder"
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1596–1598
Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, and traces of black chalk on ivory laid paper, incised for transfer
Inscriptions: Inscribed, lower right, in pen and brown ink: "27"
Dimensions: 26.7 × 18.4 cm (10 9/16 × 7 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2019.848
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/243884/manifest.json

I. Q. van Regteren Altena, Jacques de Gheyn, Three Generations (The Hague, 1983), no. 414 (ill.).
The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700, The De Gheyn Family, 2 vols. Compiled by Jan Piet Filedt Kok and Marjolein Leesberg, ed. Ger Luijten (Rotterdam: Sound and Vision Publishers, 2000 in cooperation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam), vol. 2, no. 409, p. 169 (ill. p. 195).
Bob Haboldt, ed., Singular Vision: Haboldt & Co.’s Old Master Paintings and Drawings Since 1983 (Amsterdam, New York, Paris: Haboldt & Co., 2012), p. 346 (ill.).

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Jacques de Gheyn II Drawings, Dec. 13, 1985–Sept. 2, 1986, cat.17; also Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art, Sept. 3–Nov. 5, 1986.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Rubens, Rembrandt, and Drawing in the Golden Age”, September 28, 2019 - January 5, 2020, pp. 212, 213 (ill.), 214-15, 279, 298, 331, cat. 76, cat. by Victoria Sancho Lobis, et. al.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection”, January 25 - May 10, 2020, p. 48-49, cat. 19, p. 115, fig. 19.1, p. 133, GC 27, traveled to Berkeley, CA, August 4 - November 28, 2021.

Probably Jacques de Gheyn III (c. 1596–1641), The Hague and Utrecht; probably Johannes Uytenbogaert (1608–1680), Amsterdam, by descent; to Jan and Jacob van Gheel (1667–1757 and 1670–1721), Amsterdam. Jan Pietersz. Zoomer (1641–1724), Amsterdam; sold, Amsterdam, Apr. 5, 1725, lot 56, to Jan Goeree, Amsterdam; sold, Amsterdam, Mar. 12, 1731. Probably sold, Amsterdam, Mar. 8, 1762, part of lots 1417–78. Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726–1798), Amsterdam; sold, Amsterdam, Mar. 3, 1800, lot BBB62 or DD37 (with two other drawings), to B. de Bosch, Amsterdam; sold, Amsterdam, Mar. 10, 1817, lot 30 or 31, Amsterdam. Sold, Amsterdam, Oct. 16, 1928, lot 469 (with a second drawing), Amsterdam. I.Q. (Johan Quirijn) van Regteren Altena (1899–1980), Amsterdam; by descent; sold, Christie’s, Amsterdam, Nov. 12, 1990, lot 68, to Bob P. Haboldt, Paris. Paul Russell, Amsterdam; sold through Thomas Williams, London, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, 2017; promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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A Soldier Loading a Musket, "Ramme in Your Pouder"

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Artist

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.