Lot Essay
Two plates from the same series by van Frijtom were sold by Phillips in London on 9 March 1988, lots 57 and 58.
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Frederik van Frijtom (c. 1632-1702) is considered to be one of the most distinguished and accomplished painters in the history of pottery production in the town of Delft and one of the few whose work can be identified with certainty. Although documentary evidence suggests that he sometimes painted in oil on canvas, it is as a painter on ceramics that he seems to have found his vocation. Around fifty plaques survive1, some of which are signed, along with a series of around forty plates and a few wares of various forms, including a silver-mounted jug, a basket and a cruet set.2 Pieces considered to be by van Frijtom are all painted with landscapes, usually including a few figures and buildings. They depict the natural world around him and those that lived there, indicating that he most probably worked from drawings he completed himself directly from nature in and around Delft. His distinctive painting style is characterised by a lightness of touch, fine outlines, a sense of light and distance and a feel for landscape. Although he mainly depicted the wide skies and distant horizons of the Dutch landscape, van Frijtom sometimes incorporated more mountainous rocky features and 'Italianate' buildings, suggesting that he was influenced by contemporary prints and paintings available to him which depicted more distant landscapes. Apart from one plate,3 all of the known plates attributed to van Frijtom have a blue double-line border around the well within a plain border allowing the white glaze to act as a simple frame for the subtle landscape painting. Frederik van Frijtom was never a member of the guild and probably worked as an independent painter for various potteries. For a full discussion of his life and work and a series of plates of the same type as the present lot see A. Vecht, Frederik van Frytom 1632-1702 Life and Work of a Delft Pottery-Decorator, Amsterdam, 1968, pp. 25-44, and pp. 64-87 for the plates and other wares.1. See Jan Daniël van Dam, Delffse Porceleyne, Dutch delftware 1620-1850, Amsterdam, 2004, p. 54, no. 25 for a plaque in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, painted by van Frijtom with a Dutch river landscape.2. See A. Vecht, ibid., Amsterdam, 1968, p. 71, no. 34 (jug), p. 83, no. 58 (basket) and p. 75 no. 39 (cruet). 3. See A. Vecht, ibid., p. 71, no. 33.
A DUTCH DELFT BLUE AND WHITE PLATE
CIRCA 1670-85
Details
A DUTCH DELFT BLUE AND WHITE PLATE
CIRCA 1670-85
Painted by Frederik van Frijtom, with a huntsman and his dog standing beneath a tree beside a canal with a traveller crossing a bridge beyond and buildings in the distance within a double-line border (small flat chip to underside of rim, minor glaze flakes to rim)
9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) diam.
CIRCA 1670-85
Painted by Frederik van Frijtom, with a huntsman and his dog standing beneath a tree beside a canal with a traveller crossing a bridge beyond and buildings in the distance within a double-line border (small flat chip to underside of rim, minor glaze flakes to rim)
9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) diam.
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 8 December 1981, lot 134.
Literature
Tim Ayers ed., Art at Auction, The Year at Sotheby's 1981-82, London, 1982, p. 273.
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Victoria Drummond