Winter landscape with skaters on a frozen lake, a village and church in the background

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO AERT VAN DER NEER (GORINCHEM 1603-1677 AMSTERDAM)
Winter landscape with skaters on a frozen lake, a village and church in the background
oil on canvas
14 5⁄8 x 17 ¾ in. (37.1 x 45 cm.)

Provenance

Lawrence Palk, 1st Baron Haldon (1818-1883), Haldon House, Exeter; his sale (†), Christie's, London, 28 February 1891, lot 27, as 'A. van der Neer', where acquired for 370 gns. by,
Sir George Salting (1835-1909), London, by whom bequeathed to his niece,
Katherine, Lady Binning, née Salting (1871-1952), who married in 1892 George Baillie-Hamilton, Lord Binning (1856-1917), and by descent to their son,
George Baillie-Hamilton, 12th Earl of Haddington (1894-1986), Tyninghame, East Lothian, until sold by the Trustees of the Mellerstain Trust; Sotheby's, London, 8 July 1987, lot 10, as 'Aert van der Neer'.
with Gebr. Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, by March 1988.
with Xaver Scheidwimmer, Munich, where acquired in 1988 by the grandfather of the present owners.

Literature

A.C.R. Carter, 'The Art Sales of 1891', The Art Journal, LIII, 1891, p. 309.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, VII, London, 1923, p. 455, no. 507, as 'Aert van der Neer'.
'Advertisement - Sotheby's', Weltkunst, LVII, no. 12, 15 June 1987, p. 1731, illustrated.
'Advertisement - Gebr. Douwes Fine Art', Weltkunst, LVIII, no. 5, 1 March 1988, p. 657, illustrated.
W. Schulz, Aert van der Neer, Doornspijk, 2002, p. 184, no. 201, fig. 67, as 'probably authentic'.

Exhibited

London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Catalogue of the pictures and drawings of the late Mr. George Salting, January 1910, no. 201, as 'A Van der Neer. River scene, winter: figures skating'.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Schulz (loc. cit., p. 184) dates the present work to the late 1660s, when the artist was in the latter stages of his career and winter scenes made up the majority of his output. He also notes the presence of 'fragments' of a monogram, but this is no longer visible (ibid.)

In 1891 this painting was acquired by Sir George Salting, one of the most prominent collectors of fine and decorative arts of his time. When he died in 1909, the majority of his collection was left to the Nation; he bequeathed his ceramics to the Victoria and Albert Museum, his prints and drawings to the British Museum and most of his pictures to the National Gallery, London. His gift of 192 pictures included masterpieces by Johannes Vermeer, Dirk Bouts and Frans Hals. The remaining works in his estate were inherited by his niece, Lady Katherine Binning.

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