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Lot Essay
A painter and draughtsman active in Utrecht, Claude de Jongh established his reputation through finely executed topographical views. The earliest mention of the artist occurs in 1627, when he was recorded as a member of the Painters’ Guild in Utrecht. He worked in Haarlem for a short but crucial period in the years around 1630, when a new style of landscape painting was being developed under the influence of Esaias van de Velde, before returning to Utrecht where he is believed to have practiced until his death in 1663. His artistic activity appears to have diminished significantly after circa 1640, when he suffered a debilitating paralysis affecting both arms.
The present work is exceptional within de Jongh’s oeuvre as his only known depiction of a recognisable Italian location. It represents the Ponte Fabricio, later known as the Ponte dei Quattro Capi (or Bridge of Four Heads), which crosses half of the River Tiber, connecting the Isola Tiberina to the Campus Martius on the eastern side. Constructed in 62 BC under the commission of Lucius Fabricius, it replaced an entirely wooden structure and remains one of the oldest and best-preserved bridges in Rome. Its later name derives from the marble pillars surmounted by double-faced herms of Janus at the eastern end, which had been moved from the nearby Church of Saint Gregory during the fourteenth century.
A number of dated drawings reveal a series of journeys to southern England in the late 1610s and '20s, during which he executed studies for subsequent paintings; however, no documentary evidence survives to suggest that de Jongh himself travelled to Italy. Nevertheless, Italianate landscapes would have been readily accessible in Utrecht through artists such as Cornelis van Poelenburgh and Jan Both, both of whom returned to the city following sojourns in Rome. Rather than presenting a record of strict topographical accuracy, de Jongh emphasises the picturesque character of the setting. The composition, which John Hayes proposed was based on a drawing (loc. cit.), is enlivened by incidental details, such as the inn at right and a pair of rowing boats carrying tourists along the river.
The restrained, near-monochromatic tonality reflects the artist’s engagement with the Italianate landscape tradition of the late 1620s and early 1630s, whose atmospheric subtlety profoundly shaped his mature style. A number of de Jongh’s works from the late 1630s likewise reveal an increasing fascination with Italianate motifs, incorporating classical ruins, distant mountain vistas, and the warm, luminous effects associated with southern landscapes. This may account for the fact that, when the work came to auction in 1950, it was offered with a painting considered to be its companion view, a Classical Landscape, illustrated by Hayes (op. cit., pp. 8 and 10, fig. 13).
The present work is exceptional within de Jongh’s oeuvre as his only known depiction of a recognisable Italian location. It represents the Ponte Fabricio, later known as the Ponte dei Quattro Capi (or Bridge of Four Heads), which crosses half of the River Tiber, connecting the Isola Tiberina to the Campus Martius on the eastern side. Constructed in 62 BC under the commission of Lucius Fabricius, it replaced an entirely wooden structure and remains one of the oldest and best-preserved bridges in Rome. Its later name derives from the marble pillars surmounted by double-faced herms of Janus at the eastern end, which had been moved from the nearby Church of Saint Gregory during the fourteenth century.
A number of dated drawings reveal a series of journeys to southern England in the late 1610s and '20s, during which he executed studies for subsequent paintings; however, no documentary evidence survives to suggest that de Jongh himself travelled to Italy. Nevertheless, Italianate landscapes would have been readily accessible in Utrecht through artists such as Cornelis van Poelenburgh and Jan Both, both of whom returned to the city following sojourns in Rome. Rather than presenting a record of strict topographical accuracy, de Jongh emphasises the picturesque character of the setting. The composition, which John Hayes proposed was based on a drawing (loc. cit.), is enlivened by incidental details, such as the inn at right and a pair of rowing boats carrying tourists along the river.
The restrained, near-monochromatic tonality reflects the artist’s engagement with the Italianate landscape tradition of the late 1620s and early 1630s, whose atmospheric subtlety profoundly shaped his mature style. A number of de Jongh’s works from the late 1630s likewise reveal an increasing fascination with Italianate motifs, incorporating classical ruins, distant mountain vistas, and the warm, luminous effects associated with southern landscapes. This may account for the fact that, when the work came to auction in 1950, it was offered with a painting considered to be its companion view, a Classical Landscape, illustrated by Hayes (op. cit., pp. 8 and 10, fig. 13).