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Lot Essay
The monumental Summerlandscape with motives from the Middenrijn dating from 1842, belongs to the most important works that the Dutch Romantic landscape painter Barend Cornelis Koekkoek made during the 1840's. The painting forms the link between the early work, that originated in the period between 1828 and 1840, when the artist gained international recognition, and his later work, that is often characterized by a specific melancholy in palette and subject-matter. Koekkoek undertook several journeys along the Rijn, the Ahr and the Ruhr from both The Netherlands and the old dukecity of Kleef, where the artist settled 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 Rijn, whereby he took the reader as a pupil by the hand, drawing his attention to the many specialities and characteristics of nature and the landscape. In the year of the book's publication, Koekkoek founded a drawing academy in Kleef, where he instructed the many young artists, who wished to be tutored by such a successful painter, in the art of painting according to the rules of the book.
The extensive Summerlandscape from 1842 is one of the most important examples of the influence the landscape of the Middenrijn, the area south of Bonn, exercised on Koekkoek's work. It was in this area, that Koekkoek sought and found motives, such as vistas and ruins of castles. The painter shows us, supposedly looking over the shoulder of a man seated high up on the left foreground, an extensive landscape that is surrounded by rolling hills. On a road, running over the hill on the right, a father kneels with his two children before a roadchapel in the shadow of an oaktree, while his wife sitting on a donkey looks on. Koekkoek not only uses the principally literary motif of a roadchapel with praying figures because of its devout character and the possibility to bestow the painting with an epic quality, but especially with the aim of dissolving the monotony of the picture: "eentonigheid van een vlakken en grotendeels stijven weg weg (te) nemen, maar ook, zoo als hier het geval is, (het schilderij) een zeekre schilderachtige variatie te verlenen" (Herinneringen.., p.187). Koekkoek considered the motif of people praying by a roadside chapel as a sign of humility and the smallness of humanity in contrast to the greatness of creation, just like he considered his portrayals of the landscape as a celebration of the greatness of nature. On the left, on the second plane, in the depth, lies a village with a mediaeval church, largely covered with foliage. At the edge of the village, two towers of a castle are just visible. On the third plane, a river meanders through the lowlands, dissapearing in the distance in the middle of the picture. From behind a wooded hill, the evening sun shines over the landscape and just lights up the tops of a few trees and the clouds in the sky.
In 1842, Koekkoek painted a second picture, almost equally large depicting a winter landscape. (Gorissen, op.cit., no. 42/75, sold at Sotheby's London on 27 November 1991). It is also painted on mahogany and is regarded the pendant of the present lot. Unlike the summer landscape, of which the architectural motives are not identifiable, the church in the winter landscape can be recognized as a fantasy-like rendering of the mediaeval cloister church of the Stift Bedburg, near Kleef.
The painting illustrates Koekkoek's unique talent, by means of a complicated composition, devided in various levels, in creating a landscape that can enthrall the viewer for a long time and contains a wealth of details, due to the scrupulous and masterly execution, which turn it into its own microcosmos.
Due as much to its size, as its condition, to the richness of the subject-matter as the quality of the execution, Koekkoek's summerlandscape from 1842 may be regarded as one of his most refined works.
We kindly thank Dr G. de Werd, director of the Museum Haus Koekkoek, Cleves, for preparing this catalogue entry.
The extensive Summerlandscape from 1842 is one of the most important examples of the influence the landscape of the Middenrijn, the area south of Bonn, exercised on Koekkoek's work. It was in this area, that Koekkoek sought and found motives, such as vistas and ruins of castles. The painter shows us, supposedly looking over the shoulder of a man seated high up on the left foreground, an extensive landscape that is surrounded by rolling hills. On a road, running over the hill on the right, a father kneels with his two children before a roadchapel in the shadow of an oaktree, while his wife sitting on a donkey looks on. Koekkoek not only uses the principally literary motif of a roadchapel with praying figures because of its devout character and the possibility to bestow the painting with an epic quality, but especially with the aim of dissolving the monotony of the picture: "eentonigheid van een vlakken en grotendeels stijven weg weg (te) nemen, maar ook, zoo als hier het geval is, (het schilderij) een zeekre schilderachtige variatie te verlenen" (Herinneringen.., p.187). Koekkoek considered the motif of people praying by a roadside chapel as a sign of humility and the smallness of humanity in contrast to the greatness of creation, just like he considered his portrayals of the landscape as a celebration of the greatness of nature. On the left, on the second plane, in the depth, lies a village with a mediaeval church, largely covered with foliage. At the edge of the village, two towers of a castle are just visible. On the third plane, a river meanders through the lowlands, dissapearing in the distance in the middle of the picture. From behind a wooded hill, the evening sun shines over the landscape and just lights up the tops of a few trees and the clouds in the sky.
In 1842, Koekkoek painted a second picture, almost equally large depicting a winter landscape. (Gorissen, op.cit., no. 42/75, sold at Sotheby's London on 27 November 1991). It is also painted on mahogany and is regarded the pendant of the present lot. Unlike the summer landscape, of which the architectural motives are not identifiable, the church in the winter landscape can be recognized as a fantasy-like rendering of the mediaeval cloister church of the Stift Bedburg, near Kleef.
The painting illustrates Koekkoek's unique talent, by means of a complicated composition, devided in various levels, in creating a landscape that can enthrall the viewer for a long time and contains a wealth of details, due to the scrupulous and masterly execution, which turn it into its own microcosmos.
Due as much to its size, as its condition, to the richness of the subject-matter as the quality of the execution, Koekkoek's summerlandscape from 1842 may be regarded as one of his most refined works.
We kindly thank Dr G. de Werd, director of the Museum Haus Koekkoek, Cleves, for preparing this catalogue entry.