A Group of Trees in the Dunes near Wassenaar

Bosboom rarely depicted landscapes and made them exclusively while travelling or staying with friends in the countryside. As Robert-Jan te Rijdt commented in the Rijksmuseum catalogue of 1997-8, 'On all these occasions, and during his travels as well, Bosboom did truly inspired drawings and watercolours of landscapes and other rural motifs. They were entirely outside his usual sphere of activity - church interiors - but were invariably well received. In a letter dating from late 1873, Bosboom's wife, the writer Anna Louisa Geertruida Toussaint (1812-1886), wrote: 'Bosboom has had much success with the sketches and drawings he did in Scheveningen; they are much appreciated by amateurs and dealers, and sell well'. Nevertheless, Bosboom never desired to make landscape one of his specialities....This study of a group of trees in the dunes near Wassenaar must have been done around 1873-75. It is a true tour de force, which makes it abudantly clear why Bosboom enjoyed the esteem of the painters of the Hague School who were usually so critical of the work of the older generation. With a multitude of delicate nuances and total concentration on the central motif, the image has been succinctly rendered in brush. Here, much more than in Bosboom's other landscape watercolours, the trees have merged together until they are almost abstract. With the exception of the muted colouration in the foreground, no devices have been employed to suggest depth and volume. Broad, deft brushstrokes, a perfectly balanced drawing of the silhouette and minimum use of colour are the only ingredients - in Bosboom's hands, they produce a highly poetic work. He was accustomed to using deep tints to evoke the tonality and the atmosphere of hushed spaces, he has strived to attain that same artistic goal in the portrayal of this group of trees'