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Lot Essay
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek is generally considered to be the most important landscape painter of the Dutch Romantic period. The present painting, depicting the outskirts of a Rhenish town on a beautiful sunlit afternoon in winter and painted in 1843 at the height of Koekkoek's mastery and international recognition, may be regarded as a masterpiece of this period.
Barend Cornelis was born on the 11th of October 1803 in Middelburg as the eldest of four children. His father and first teacher was the river- and seascape painter Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (1778-1851). At thirteen Koekkoek was a student at the local academy and attended the evening classes of Abraham Kraystein (1793-1855). A scholarship awarded by the Dutch Government made it possible for Koekkoek to attend the art academy in Amsterdam, where he became a pupil of Jean Augustin Daiwaille (1786-1850) whom he befriended and worked with during the rest of his career.
Koekkoek undertook several journeys along the Rhine, the Ahr and the Ruhr from both The Netherlands and the old Ducal city of Cleves where the artist had settled permanently in 1834. These trips gave him the opportunity, while drawing and studying from nature, to get to know the landscapes and motives, which he subsequently worked out in paintings in his studio.
Koekkoek's lesson-book for young painters, Herinneringen en Mededeelingen van eenen landschapsschilder, which was published in Amsterdam in 1841, was conceived as a description of such a journey along the Rhine, whereby he took the reader as a pupil by the hand, drawing his attention to the many specialities and characteristics of landscape and the architectural elements within it. In the year of the book's publication, Koekkoek founded a drawing academy in Kleef, where he instructed many young artists who wished to be tutored by such a successful painter in the art of painting according to the rules of his book. The basis was laid for what later became known as 'Cleves Romanticism.'
The present painting demonstrates the manner in which various motives are combined, forming a capriccio view, as various architectural elements are recognisable. The churchtower on the right of the composition is, for example, based on the tower of a church in Delft and the windmill shows similarities to a mill in Nijmegen.
In the 1840's, Koekkoek had reached the height of his artistic mastership. He was awarded a Gold Medal in Paris for a landscape painted for the Prince of Orange, who later became King Willem II of the Netherlands. On seeing this painting in The Hague, the successor to the Russian throne, the later Tsar Alexander II ordered a pendant of the work.
In 1843, the year in which the present lot was painted, Koekkoek received his second Gold Medal at the Paris Salon, confirming his status as the leading Romantic landscape painter of his time. It was also the year in which he moved into his purpose built studio "Belvedere" which was erected on the fundaments of an old city tower in Cleves and gave Koekkoek wonderful views of the town.
The variegated treatment of light and multilayered pictorial planes and the sheer number of figures and architectural elements in the present painting are remarkable even for Koekkoek's standards. His virtuosity is demonstrated by the way the sunset is captured before the night drowns the city in darkness.
The discovery of this work in the United Kingdom may be regarded as a very rare event indeed. The present lot was previously unknown, is not recorded in literature and has been in private hands since 1853.
The authenticity has been kindly confirmed by Drs Guido de Werd after firsthand examination.
Barend Cornelis was born on the 11th of October 1803 in Middelburg as the eldest of four children. His father and first teacher was the river- and seascape painter Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (1778-1851). At thirteen Koekkoek was a student at the local academy and attended the evening classes of Abraham Kraystein (1793-1855). A scholarship awarded by the Dutch Government made it possible for Koekkoek to attend the art academy in Amsterdam, where he became a pupil of Jean Augustin Daiwaille (1786-1850) whom he befriended and worked with during the rest of his career.
Koekkoek undertook several journeys along the Rhine, the Ahr and the Ruhr from both The Netherlands and the old Ducal city of Cleves where the artist had settled permanently in 1834. These trips gave him the opportunity, while drawing and studying from nature, to get to know the landscapes and motives, which he subsequently worked out in paintings in his studio.
Koekkoek's lesson-book for young painters, Herinneringen en Mededeelingen van eenen landschapsschilder, which was published in Amsterdam in 1841, was conceived as a description of such a journey along the Rhine, whereby he took the reader as a pupil by the hand, drawing his attention to the many specialities and characteristics of landscape and the architectural elements within it. In the year of the book's publication, Koekkoek founded a drawing academy in Kleef, where he instructed many young artists who wished to be tutored by such a successful painter in the art of painting according to the rules of his book. The basis was laid for what later became known as 'Cleves Romanticism.'
The present painting demonstrates the manner in which various motives are combined, forming a capriccio view, as various architectural elements are recognisable. The churchtower on the right of the composition is, for example, based on the tower of a church in Delft and the windmill shows similarities to a mill in Nijmegen.
In the 1840's, Koekkoek had reached the height of his artistic mastership. He was awarded a Gold Medal in Paris for a landscape painted for the Prince of Orange, who later became King Willem II of the Netherlands. On seeing this painting in The Hague, the successor to the Russian throne, the later Tsar Alexander II ordered a pendant of the work.
In 1843, the year in which the present lot was painted, Koekkoek received his second Gold Medal at the Paris Salon, confirming his status as the leading Romantic landscape painter of his time. It was also the year in which he moved into his purpose built studio "Belvedere" which was erected on the fundaments of an old city tower in Cleves and gave Koekkoek wonderful views of the town.
The variegated treatment of light and multilayered pictorial planes and the sheer number of figures and architectural elements in the present painting are remarkable even for Koekkoek's standards. His virtuosity is demonstrated by the way the sunset is captured before the night drowns the city in darkness.
The discovery of this work in the United Kingdom may be regarded as a very rare event indeed. The present lot was previously unknown, is not recorded in literature and has been in private hands since 1853.
The authenticity has been kindly confirmed by Drs Guido de Werd after firsthand examination.