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Lot Essay
Jan van Goyen was one of the greatest and most prolific seventeenth-century Dutch landscapists. Prior to 1626, his early works closely resembled those of his teacher Esaias van de Velde, but from the 1630s onwards, van Goyen and his famous Haarlem colleagues, Salomon van Ruysdael, Pieter de Molijn and Jan Porcellis, developed a new tonal manner, with an almost monochrome palette. Van Goyen here depicts the water of the river inlet with a remarkably sparing technique, achieved by using very thin glazes of paint through which the natural grain of the panel is visible. This technique provides depth to the water and achieves a convincingly naturalistic impression of the gentle ripples across the surface. The sparing, monochromic palette of the picture, so characteristic of van Goyen’s work, is carefully modulated as the open vista recedes, employing denser and lighter colours to highlight the channel of water illuminated by the sun beyond. In the left foreground, van Goyen depicts a somewhat dilapidated house, topped with a small tower, with a large wooden dovecot attached to the near gable. Beyond, on the raised bank, is a small countryside inn with a group of peasants and other figures gathered outside. A similar building and arrangement of figures can be seen in van Goyen’s The Stop before the Inn dated 1643 in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
This panel formed part of a large group of paintings inherited by Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882–1947) in 1916 from the collection of his great uncle, Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (1832-1916), who in turn had inherited them from his sister, Lady Elizabeth Joanna de Burgh (1826-1854), wife of Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood (1824-1892), who died without issue. The Clanricarde bequest formed the core of the Harewood collection, to which the 6th Earl continued to add and augment. When Tancred Borenius catalogued the Harewood collection in 1936 (op. cit.), this painting was hung in the White Dressing Room at Harewood House, with other small, cabinet paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists.
This panel formed part of a large group of paintings inherited by Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882–1947) in 1916 from the collection of his great uncle, Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (1832-1916), who in turn had inherited them from his sister, Lady Elizabeth Joanna de Burgh (1826-1854), wife of Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood (1824-1892), who died without issue. The Clanricarde bequest formed the core of the Harewood collection, to which the 6th Earl continued to add and augment. When Tancred Borenius catalogued the Harewood collection in 1936 (op. cit.), this painting was hung in the White Dressing Room at Harewood House, with other small, cabinet paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists.