An estuary with fisherman and shipping and a church to the left

Jan van Goyen began to depict estuary scenes and canals in the second half of the 1620s, around the time he abandoned the style of his master, Esaias van de Velde, in favour of a more tonal approach with an almost monochrome palette that had gained currency in the period. Van Goyen relished the depiction of the broad, open landscape of Holland, which is dominated by water and sky. Like many of these works, the present composition employs a low horizon line and a deep recession into depth, which is defined through carefully chosen areas of light and dark.

A note on the provenance:

The present work was acquired by the gold and diamond magnate Alfred Beit by 1904, when Wilhelm von Bode, then the curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin and Beit's advisor, published it in his catalogue of the collection at Beit’s London residence at 26 Park Lane in Mayfair. Van Goyen held particular appeal for the collector. The present painting was one of four works by the artist on view at his London accommodations, a number that was rivalled only by Willem van de Velde II among the Dutch and Flemish painters. In 1986, Beit’s descendants made one of the most generous philanthropic gifts in the arts to Ireland by giving many of the most celebrated pictures in the Collection to the National Gallery of Ireland. These included masterpieces by Vermeer, Gabriel Metsu, Jacob van Ruisdael, Goya and Gainsborough, amongst others. The donation transformed the Gallery’s collection of Old Master Paintings and a wing of the Gallery was fittingly named ‘The Beit Wing’ in recognition of this remarkable gift.