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Lot Essay
Described by Werner Sumowski as 'one of the most important works of Koninck’s late career' (loc. cit.), this bucolic woodland scene is impressive in both scale and execution. Although similar in size to the artist’s expansive, open panoramas, this painting takes as its subject a small clearing within a dense forest and employs a more tonal, harmonious color palette.
Koninck’s consummate abilities in the realm of landscape are amply illustrated here through his careful construction of space in which several large foreground trees frame a clearing through which runs a dirt path. To the right of the path stands a rustic, somewhat dilapidated farmhouse nestled amongst the trees. To the left, the scene opens up to a softly illuminated clearing. The two largest oak trees at right, whose gnarled texture is only partially illuminated by light filtering through the dense foliage, lean toward one another and form a triangle that frames the end wall of the rural dwelling. By closely cropping his composition, Koninck afforded himself the opportunity to pay particular attention to the quotidian existence of these humble rural dwellers: laundry flutters from a line strung outside the farmhouse, a herdsman tends his goats and, in the central midground, two men are busy repairing a fence.
Sumowski considered this painting to date from the late 1660s, citing similarities with a painting by Koninck in Leerdam’s Hofje van Aerden (loc. cit.). More recently, however, at the time of its exhibition in Hamburg and Haarlem, Karsten Müller dated it to the 1670s, citing a compelling comparison with a drawing by Koninck in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (loc. cit.).
Koninck’s consummate abilities in the realm of landscape are amply illustrated here through his careful construction of space in which several large foreground trees frame a clearing through which runs a dirt path. To the right of the path stands a rustic, somewhat dilapidated farmhouse nestled amongst the trees. To the left, the scene opens up to a softly illuminated clearing. The two largest oak trees at right, whose gnarled texture is only partially illuminated by light filtering through the dense foliage, lean toward one another and form a triangle that frames the end wall of the rural dwelling. By closely cropping his composition, Koninck afforded himself the opportunity to pay particular attention to the quotidian existence of these humble rural dwellers: laundry flutters from a line strung outside the farmhouse, a herdsman tends his goats and, in the central midground, two men are busy repairing a fence.
Sumowski considered this painting to date from the late 1660s, citing similarities with a painting by Koninck in Leerdam’s Hofje van Aerden (loc. cit.). More recently, however, at the time of its exhibition in Hamburg and Haarlem, Karsten Müller dated it to the 1670s, citing a compelling comparison with a drawing by Koninck in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (loc. cit.).