a frederik van frytom blue and white rectangular landscape plaque

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FREDERIK VAN FRYTOM 1632-1702 Frederik van Frytom's considerable significance is determined first and foremost by the ceramic work we know from his hand. As a potter-painter, he is both a highly exceptional and a very great artist. In his genre, and by virtue of his personal ideas, views and technique, he forms an unique phenomenon among the great masters who practised this art at Delft and he is surpassed by none. In him the potter's art at Delft reached its apogee. He it was who raised this more or less decorative art to a level on which it acquired a spiritual quality and achieved freedom. Although Van Frytom's ceramic works bear witness to a high degree of pictorial ability, they nevertheless remain purely ceramic in essence. There can be no doubt, that in the possibilities and the technique which the potter's craft have to offer the artist, he found his destination and his fulfilment. The ceramic by Van Frytom which have been preserved are fairly limited in number; in fact, compared with what remains to us of other artists' work, their number must be said to be very small indeed. A. Vecht, Frederik van Frytom 1632-1702, Life and work of a Delft pottery-decorator (Amsterdam 1968), pp.34-35.

a frederik van frytom blue and white rectangular landscape plaque

CIRCA 1660, MARKED IN BLUE ON THE BACKSIDE 7, THE CENTRAL LANDSCAPE PAINTED BY VAN FRYTOM

Details

a frederik van frytom blue and white rectangular landscape plaque
Circa 1660, marked in blue on the backside 7, the central landscape painted by Van Frytom
Depicting a smooth Italianate landscape with two faraway standing figures, two swans in a pond, a hilltop with Roman ruins to the background, further with rocks and a large tree to the foreground, within a raised border moulded with grapes, wine leaves, pomegranates and flowers, crowned with a pierced shell (possibly the border not by Van Frytom himself, but by another pottery decorator), (two repaired chips to the edge), (within a fitted case)
26 x 27cm

Provenance

A Dutch Collection no. 59

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20% (VAT inclusive) for this lot.

Lot Essay

This early work can be dated around 1660, on account of the background reminiscent of stage-settings and its rather dark foreground. But in addition to such Italianate mountain landscapes, this early series also includes hilly scenes which seem to have been painted in the neighbourhood of Bentheim and Nijmegen.

cf. A. Vecht, Frederik van Frytom 1632-1702, Life and work of a Delft pottery-decorator (Amsterdam 1968), pp.58-59, ill.3, for a comparable landscape.
M.A. Heukensfeldt Jansen, Delfts aardewerk, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, (Amsterdam 1967),ill.7, for a similar ruin in a forested landscape.

See illustration

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