Jan van der Heyden* (1637-1712)

Details

Jan van der Heyden* (1637-1712)

A Hawking Party on a path in a river valley below a fortified town, with a peasant crossing a bridge in the foreground

indistinctly signed with monogram 'JVH'--oil on copper
8 1/8 x 9 1/8in. (20.7 x 23.2cm.)

Provenance

probably Hendrik van Heteren, The Hague,and by descent to his son
Adriaan Leonard van Heteren, and by descent to his nephew
Adriaan Leonard van Heteren Gevers, from whom purchased in 1809 by Louis Napoleon, King of the Netherlands, by whom given to
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; sale, de Vries, Amsterdam, Aug. 4, 1828, lot 69 sold with pendant lot 70 (490 guilders to Lamberts).
J.A. Toe Laer; sale, Amsterdam, July 28, 1841, lot 8 (490 guilders to Woodin).
S. Woodin, London, 1841
J. Walter, Bearwood, by 1841
with F. Kleinberger, Paris, 1911.
with Galerie Brunner, Paris

Literature

G. Hoet, Catalogus of nammlyst van schilderjin, 1752, II, pl 455
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., supplement, 1842, p. 677, no. 26
Dr. G.F. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, supplement, 1857, p. 297 as in the 'middle Drawing-Room, Bearwood'. A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, IV, 1914, p. 1472, no. 115 or 121.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., VIII, 1927, pp. 374-5, no. 148
H. Wagner, Jan van der Heyden, 1971, p. 105, no. 170 illustrated
P.J.J. van Thiel in All the Paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, 1976, p. 19

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1882, no. 115 or 121 (lent by J. Walter)

Lot Essay

The present lot is first recorded in the distinguished collection of Adriaan Leonard van Heteren who inherited the majority of the paintings from his father, and who in turn bequeathed the collection to his nephew, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren Gevers. In 1809, Louis Napoleon, King of the Netherlands, purchased the collection in its entirety (see P.J.J. van Thiel, loc. cit., pp.14-15) and among the 137 paintings which remain in the Rijksmuseum, are Jan Steen's The Feast of Saint Nicholas, Inv. no. A385, Jan van der Heyden's The Nieuwe Zijds Voorburgwal with the Oude Haarlemmersluis, Amsterdam, Inv. no. A154 and Rubens' modello of Christ carrying the Cross, Inv. no. A344.

However, in 1828, the present painting and its pendant were successive lots in a sale that included 38 paintings from the Rijksmuseum that were being sold to benefit the acquisitions budget. Ironically, the majority of the final sum raised at the auction went towards payment for another painting in the same auction, Rembrandt's Anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaas Tulp, sold on behalf of the Amsterdam Surgeon's guild and subsequently placed by King Wilhelm I in the Mauritshuis, Inv. no. 146.

The painting was later owned by John Walter, whose family founded and operated The Times in London, and whose home, Bearwood (redesigned for Walter by Robert Kerr) housed one of the most distinguished collections of Dutch paintings assembled in the nineteenth century.