ABSTRACT
In 1618, the English gentleman and miniature painter Edward Norgate wrote William Trumbull, King James I’s agent in Brussels, requesting help in procuring a particular type of drawing for his patron, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the first Englishman to appreciate and collect drawings seriously. “How very welcome a few…Drawings of Rewbens, or [Guillaume] van Nieulandt…would be…,” Norgate wrote, especially “some of theire first and sleight drawings, either of Landskip, or any such kind as might happily be procured.” His desire to find a “first and sleight” sketch departs from contemporary preference for highly finished sheets. 1 Even more unexpected is Norgate’s remark that such drawings were “never sold but given to frends that are Leefhebbers,” using the Dutch term for art lover. 2
