Hans Liefrinck II* (c.1538-1599)

A rocky coastal Landscape with a Man-of-War firing a Salute

Details

Hans Liefrinck II* (c.1538-1599)
A rocky coastal Landscape with a Man-of-War firing a Salute
bears initials 'IB'
oil on panel
5 x 7.5/8in. (14 x 19.3cm.)

Provenance

Lord Wharton, Halswell Park, Bridgewater.
Anon. Sale, Sotheby's, London, Nov. 17, 1948, lot 5 as Brill (70gns. to Lambert).
Captain E.G. Spencer Churchill, M.C., Northwick Park, Gloucestershire; his sale, Christie's, London, Oct. 29, 1965, lot 84 as by the monogrammist I.F. (1200gns. to the following).
with Leonard Koetser, London (Spring Exhibition, Mar. 7-May 31, 1966, no. 19, as Jan Brueghel the Elder; advertised in The Apollo Magazine, March 1966, pl. XXIX and The Connoisseur Magazine, CLXI, March 1966, no. 649, pl. LXV), from whom purchased by the present owner in 1966.

Literature

K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der ltere, 1979, p. 557, under no. 1, as a follower of Brueghel.
K. Ertz, et. al., in the catalogue of the exhibition Brueghel: Een dynastie van Schilders, Brussels, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Sept. 18-Nov. 18, 1980, p. 179, under no. 106, as a follower of Brueghel.
M. Russell, Paintings of Coastal Scenes by Hans and Cornelis Liefrinck of Leiden, in The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIV, no. 1068, March 1992, pp. 175-9, fig. 26.

Lot Essay

The identitification of the present lot as by Hans Liefrinck II was first proposed by W. Wurfbain, Director of the Lakenhal Museum, Leiden (Russell, op. cit, p. 176). It is consistent in character to North-Netherlandish landscape painting of the 1560s-80s inspired by the world landscapes of Joachim Patinir. In her article in The Burlington Magazine (ibid.) Margareta Russell states that the attribution to Liefrinck can be accepted with confidence. She notes that the characteristics of this work are consistent with world-view landscape painting of the 1560s-80s, and comments on the distinctly Dutch flavor of this seascape in which the foreground motifs are omitted, letting the sea expand uninterrupted into the distance. She draws attention to some archaic features consistent with 16th century landscapes (the high horizon and lack of spacial clarity), and also comments on the old-fashioned presentation of the three-master boat in the foreground which still has the over-dominant main mast, common at the time of the Armada, but outdated at the time this work was executed circa 1575-85 (ibid., p. 177).

Hans Liefrinck was the son of the Antwerp engraver, Cornelis Liefrinck I and an active painter-cartographer in Leiden from 1565, who is most famous for his role as designer of the Lanckaert Tapestry, now in the Lakenhal Museum, Leiden.