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Lot Essay
'Jour neigeux' is without doubt the most important winter landscape painted by Jacob Maris. With its sheer size, technique and subject-matter, it contains all the traits that Maris' pictures and that of Hague School artists are renowned for: the quality to capture the atmospheric influences of the ever changing Dutch weather on the landscape in vivid, bold brushstrokes.
From 1871 onwards, Maris occupied a studio on the Noordwest Buitensingel in The Hague, which at that time formed the outskirts of the city. As such, he had direct access to the typical Dutch polder landscapes from his studio. The windmill in the present lot is also depicted in a similar composition, although in a summer setting. (Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, inv.no 43-x-1970, 48 x 32).
Although snow landscapes form only a small part of the artist's oeuvre (which from a practical point of view is not surprising given the Dutch climate), the artist must have developed a special liking for them in his mature years. The snowlandscapes by his hands that are dated, all date from 1888 and 1890 (photographs recorded in the R.K.D., The Hague). The present lot precedes these, as the exhibition catalogue of 1965 dates the work at circa 1882. A version in watercolour is known in which th trees in the foreground have been omitted.
'Jour neigeux' must have entered the collection of John Reid in Glasgow shortly after it was acquired by the artdealer Franois Buffa in 1899. Although Reid's collection was relatively smaller than those formed by his fellow Scotsmen James Staats Forbes and Alexander Young, it was still an impressive collection for today's standards. As was typical for Anglosaxon collections of the last quarter of the 19th century, Reid's collection also contained works by the artist of the Barbizon School and of British Schools. It contained eleven works by Jozef Israels (one of which is included in the sale under lot 210), five works by Jacob Maris, four by Willem Maris and others by Blommers (see lot 208), Mesdag, Mauve and Apol.
From 1871 onwards, Maris occupied a studio on the Noordwest Buitensingel in The Hague, which at that time formed the outskirts of the city. As such, he had direct access to the typical Dutch polder landscapes from his studio. The windmill in the present lot is also depicted in a similar composition, although in a summer setting. (Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, inv.no 43-x-1970, 48 x 32).
Although snow landscapes form only a small part of the artist's oeuvre (which from a practical point of view is not surprising given the Dutch climate), the artist must have developed a special liking for them in his mature years. The snowlandscapes by his hands that are dated, all date from 1888 and 1890 (photographs recorded in the R.K.D., The Hague). The present lot precedes these, as the exhibition catalogue of 1965 dates the work at circa 1882. A version in watercolour is known in which th trees in the foreground have been omitted.
'Jour neigeux' must have entered the collection of John Reid in Glasgow shortly after it was acquired by the artdealer Franois Buffa in 1899. Although Reid's collection was relatively smaller than those formed by his fellow Scotsmen James Staats Forbes and Alexander Young, it was still an impressive collection for today's standards. As was typical for Anglosaxon collections of the last quarter of the 19th century, Reid's collection also contained works by the artist of the Barbizon School and of British Schools. It contained eleven works by Jozef Israels (one of which is included in the sale under lot 210), five works by Jacob Maris, four by Willem Maris and others by Blommers (see lot 208), Mesdag, Mauve and Apol.