.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The artist was born in The Hague in 1675 and came to London towards the end of the century. Primarily a marine painter, his style is close enough to that of Willem van de Velde II that he is believed to have worked in his studio; indeed his daughter, Bernarda, married Van de Velde's son, Cornelis, in Knightsbridge Chapel in 1699.
Beyond his sea pictures, one of which - English Ships in a Storm - is signed and dated 1714 (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum), few compositions with landscape features are known. A River landscape with a hermit at prayer, signed and dated 'J.C.v. Hagen 1716', in the W. van der Haagen collection, Arnhem (Witt Library photograph), shows similarities with the present picture, particularly in the treatment of the rocks and the diminutive rendering of the figures and foliage.
The view in this picture would appear to be loosely based on Oberwesel, near Weisbaden.
Beyond his sea pictures, one of which - English Ships in a Storm - is signed and dated 1714 (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum), few compositions with landscape features are known. A River landscape with a hermit at prayer, signed and dated 'J.C.v. Hagen 1716', in the W. van der Haagen collection, Arnhem (Witt Library photograph), shows similarities with the present picture, particularly in the treatment of the rocks and the diminutive rendering of the figures and foliage.
The view in this picture would appear to be loosely based on Oberwesel, near Weisbaden.