Jan van Goyen, ​A Winter Landscape with Skaters and Colf Players on a Frozen River near a Windmill. 1630

English, Nederlands

English

A Winter Landscape with Skaters and Colf Players on a Frozen River near a Windmill, by Jan Josefsz. van Goyen (Leiden, 1596 - 1656, The Hague)

Oil on panel. 49 x 64 cm.; 19 1/4 x 25 1/4 in. Signed and dated lower right: VGOIEN 1630

Provenance

  • Douairière d'Hoop van Alstein;
  • His deceased sale, Ghent, Predhom, 26 july 1849, lot 109 (90 francs to Forent);
  • J.V. van Bever;
  • His sale, Brussels, Le Roy, 10 March 1884, lot 29;
  • Anonymous sale, Cologne, Heberle, 28 June 1890, lot 31 (2000 DM);
  • Edmond Huybrechts;
  • is deceased sale, Antwerp, Le Roy, 12 May 1902, lot 84 (8,100 francs to Sedelmeyer);
  • Marquise de Ganay;
  • Her sale, Paris, Galerie George Petit, 8-10 May 1922, lot 49 (42,000FF);
  • Private collection;
  • Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, 7 July 1993, lot 45;
  • With Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibited

  • Paris, Galerie Charles Sedelmeyer, 1902, no. 16;
  • London, Richard Green, Important Old Master Paintings, 1994, no. 6;
  • London, Richard Green, Jan Van Goyen, 1996, no. 9.

Literature

  • T. von Frimmel, "Bemerkungen über den polychromen Frühstil des Jan van Goyen", in Blätter für Gemäldekunde, vol. II, 1905, pp. 71-76, cat. no. 4;
  • C. Dreyfus, Les Arts, 1909, p. 4, no. 96;
  • C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VIII, London 1927, p. 300, no. 1189;
  • H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, vol. II, Amsterdam 1973, p. 24, cat. no. 47;
  • H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, exhibiton catalogue, London 1996, no. 9, reproduced.

Auctions

  • Sotheby's (London (England)) 2007-12-05, afb. kleurenreproductie, lotnr. 33, met opgave van herkomst en literatuur. Property from the London Residence of Dimitri Mavrommatis. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 GBP; Sold 264,500 GBP.

Catalogue Note:

Dated 1630, this is an extremely rare example of a winter landscape by Van Goyen from the years 1628-38 and illustrates his immediate mastery of the genre, and it is therefore surprising that he spent much of the 1630s concentrating on river landscapes, dune landscapes and village scenes, only returning properly to the winter landscape in 1638. His several winter landscapes from that year are, however, clearly indebted to the present work, painted eight years earlier; compare, for example, with his 1638 work formerly with De Boer, Amsterdam,1 or with another from that year in Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal.2  Similarities between the latter and the present work are not merely compositional; as is often the case in his oeuvre, several motifs are repeated, most obviously the skater with the red jacket in the foreground who appears in the Lakenhal picture in reverse. Van Goyen spent much of the 1620s still heavily influenced by Esaias van de Velde, under whom he had studied in 1618-19. In 1627 he broke away from the example of his master and his works after this date show a new maturity which marks the beginning of his own individual style. His winter landscapes of the 1620s are characterised, like Van de Velde's, by a composition cluttered with figures, buildings and trees. With this painting however, dated 1630, Van Goyen propels the genre into the new decade. After this work his winter landscapes, and those of many of his peers, are dominated by a huge, overpowering sky (which here takes up over three-quarters of the composition) and the landscape itself is opened up so creating a greater sense of spatial depth. Of particular interest in this work is the presence of numerous underdrawings and pentimenti, on and around the figures. During his travels Van Goyen filled several sketchbooks with rapid studies of landscapes, buildings, animals and figures, which he would then use as the basis for elements in his oil paintings. The liberally, and often wildly, executed pencil marks that characterize this work are typical of Van Goyen's approach to drawing from this date onwards, where previously he had been far more meticulous. Both in terms of composition and technique, this panel should therefore be considered an important transitional work marking the beginning of the artist's maturity.

1.  See H.-U. Beck, under Literature, p. 26, no. 52, reproduced.

2.  See C. Vogelaar et al., Jan van Goyen, exhibition catalogue, Leiden and Zwolle 1996, p. 104, no. 20, reproduced.

Nederlands

Winterlandschap met schaatsers op een bevroren vaart bij een molen, rechts op de achtergrond een galgenveld, 1630, door Jan van Goyen

Olieverf op paneel. 49 x 64 cm. Gesigneerd en gedateerd rechtsonder: VGOIEN 1630

Veilingen

• Sotheby's (London (England)) 2007-12-05, afb. kleurenreproductie, lotnr. 33, met opgave van herkomst en literatuur. Property from the London Residence of Dimitri Mavrommatis. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 GBP; Sold 264,500 GBP.

Literatuur/Documentation

• Beck 1972-1991 , dl. 2 (1973), nr. 47

Bron/Source: Do Smit