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拍品專文
The present seminal painting by Andreas Schelfhout reveals the full splendour of the artist's acutely sensitive perception and hand-eye coordination. Picking up on the most subtle details in nature, Schelfhout is able to transmute his impression to panel. Painted in 1853 when Schelfhout was widely acclaimed, this painting may be considered one of the finest from his overall oeuvre.
Looking across an expanse of incandescent ice, a large number of figures are shown in motion. Workmen are loading up an ice-cart whilst skaters gracefully glide by. A young boy and his dog in the foreground seem to survey the appealing scene from a vantage point similar to that of the spectator. An enormous sky with beautiful pinks, oranges and blues and effervescent clouds encompasses the whole.
A complicated lighting plan is utilized, in which long shadows are thrown across the ice in streaks, ultimately leading the eye to a white expanse of ice in the distance that is fully illuminated. Ingeniously, this white background area underneath the horizon allows for a strong contrast with the darker colours of ice skaters, accentuating their presence and movement.
Schelfhout's extraordinary talent was much appreciated in his own time. He was often invited to the Royal Palace. Schelfhout did not hesitate to make use of his many social contacts. He would, for example, secure a Royal Grant for his pupil Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) through his friend Ludolph van Bronkhorst who was the private secretary to the Prince of Orange.
Reproduced on the cover of the most recent book on Schelfhout, the author, referring to the present lot, states:
'In 1853 [...] maakte hij een ijstafereel dat in alle onderdelen perfect is geschilderd en daardoor sterk tot de verbeelding spreekt' (W. Laanstra, Andreas Schelfhout, Amsterdam 1995, p. 24).
Schelfhout has indeed achieved a form of faultlessness in this painting that seems to reinvent itself continually.
Looking across an expanse of incandescent ice, a large number of figures are shown in motion. Workmen are loading up an ice-cart whilst skaters gracefully glide by. A young boy and his dog in the foreground seem to survey the appealing scene from a vantage point similar to that of the spectator. An enormous sky with beautiful pinks, oranges and blues and effervescent clouds encompasses the whole.
A complicated lighting plan is utilized, in which long shadows are thrown across the ice in streaks, ultimately leading the eye to a white expanse of ice in the distance that is fully illuminated. Ingeniously, this white background area underneath the horizon allows for a strong contrast with the darker colours of ice skaters, accentuating their presence and movement.
Schelfhout's extraordinary talent was much appreciated in his own time. He was often invited to the Royal Palace. Schelfhout did not hesitate to make use of his many social contacts. He would, for example, secure a Royal Grant for his pupil Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) through his friend Ludolph van Bronkhorst who was the private secretary to the Prince of Orange.
Reproduced on the cover of the most recent book on Schelfhout, the author, referring to the present lot, states:
'In 1853 [...] maakte hij een ijstafereel dat in alle onderdelen perfect is geschilderd en daardoor sterk tot de verbeelding spreekt' (W. Laanstra, Andreas Schelfhout, Amsterdam 1995, p. 24).
Schelfhout has indeed achieved a form of faultlessness in this painting that seems to reinvent itself continually.