Attributed to Louis de Lincler

The present double-sided study and 1953.4 belong to a group of landscape views depicting various towns along the Loire from a vellum sketchbook. These landscape views have previously been attributed to Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677), Israel Silvestre (1621-1691), and Georg Hoefnagel (1542-1600).
It seems that these views are the work of the virtually unknown L(ouis) De Lincler. De Lincler apparently traveled along the Loire Valley, recording in his sketchbook topographical views of Angers, Orléans, Saumur, Nantes, and other towns. Comparable drawings by the same hand are in the British Museum (1910,0212.108-110) and the Musee Carnavalet, Paris, among other collections. The seventeenth century engraver Francois Collignon produced a series of etchings after topographical views by De Lincler, including a print after the view of Angers in the British Museum (1910,0212.109).
On this double-sided sheet, the artist depicted several views in different registers on the same page, unlike the leaf containing views of Tours and Amboise (1953.4), in which the artist devoted a full page to vantages of major cities.
On the recto, the upper study shows a hillside town with a high church spire; below to the left of center is a detail of a church and convent; and at the bottom is a fortified city, partly on an island. The upper study represents Saint-Gemmes sur Loire, while the lower depicts Saumur. The verso contains rural views with fields and a windmill. These views are plainly inscribed Oudon and Champtoceaux, villages across the river from each other between Nantes and Angers. Oudon is a commune in Loire-Inferieure, near d'Ancenis, identifiably by the remains of the town's fifteenth century castle and tower. Champtoceaux, in the Cholet region of Maine-et-Loire, played an important role in the history of the Carolingians. The fortress was dismantled in fifteenth century but its ruins still remain.