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Lot Essay
This serene river landscape is exemplary of van Goyen’s subject matter, execution and his mastery of composition during the 1640s. The chronology of van Goyen’s oeuvre can be traced through changes of tone and colour in his palette. His early works of the 1620s were heavily influenced by the strong colours and closely defined details of his teacher, Esaias van de Velde (1587-1630). During the 1630s and early 1640s, he moved away from this aesthetic, deploying an innovative tonality that was to be his trademark; his palette became almost monochromatic, first using silver and grey combinations, and later incorporating greens, yellows and browns. The late 1640s saw yet another shift in van Goyen’s palette, as he slowly began to move towards a more luminous, colourful and realistic vision of nature. The beginnings of this transition are evident in this painting: the greens of the trees are cool and unsuppressed, while the glassy river reflects subtle pink tones from the sky, with its small areas of un-modulated blue alongside van Goyen’s typical mottled grey clouds. His use of an oak panel as a support enhances the freshness of his palette, while showcasing his painterly brushwork. The composition is similarly characteristic of the period, based around the strong wedge shape frequently employed by van Goyen in his river landscapes, the receding banks and craft on the river emphasising the three-dimensional recession towards the horizon; he used a similar composition in another panel of the same size and date in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hofstede de Groot suggested in 1927 (op. cit.) that this painting may be identical with a work in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), which was listed by Buchanan as a ‘Landscape’ by the artist, and which was subsequently sold in London in 1816, where it was described in the sale catalogue as ‘Landscape and View on a River, with Ferry-Boat. Painted with freedom and vigour: on Panel, 30 inches by 35 ½’. Weale and Richter, working almost forty years earlier in 1889, made no mention of this potential provenance in their catalogue of the Northbrook collection, and Beck’s 1973 catalogue raisonné omits it. Lucien Bonaparte amassed an impressive and extensive collection of Old Masters, part of which came to auction after he fell into financial difficulties. The collection included paintings by Fra Angelico, Titian, Poussin, and a Waterfall in a Hilly Landscape by Jacob van Ruisdael (private collection), a Dutch landscape artist working shortly after van Goyen.
Hofstede de Groot suggested in 1927 (op. cit.) that this painting may be identical with a work in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), which was listed by Buchanan as a ‘Landscape’ by the artist, and which was subsequently sold in London in 1816, where it was described in the sale catalogue as ‘Landscape and View on a River, with Ferry-Boat. Painted with freedom and vigour: on Panel, 30 inches by 35 ½’. Weale and Richter, working almost forty years earlier in 1889, made no mention of this potential provenance in their catalogue of the Northbrook collection, and Beck’s 1973 catalogue raisonné omits it. Lucien Bonaparte amassed an impressive and extensive collection of Old Masters, part of which came to auction after he fell into financial difficulties. The collection included paintings by Fra Angelico, Titian, Poussin, and a Waterfall in a Hilly Landscape by Jacob van Ruisdael (private collection), a Dutch landscape artist working shortly after van Goyen.