Lot Essay
The authenticity has been kindly confirmed by Drs Guido de Werd on the basis of a photograph. He dates this early work towards 1826-1827, when the artist resided in Hilversum for two years. This town in the rural surroundings of Het Gooi formed a true artist's colony at that time, with no less than fourteen painters in residence, amongst whom J.H. Bodeman, P.G. van Os and J. van Ravenswaay. In retrospect the years Koekkoek spent in Hilversum were formative for his development as a landscape painter (see A. Nollert, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862), Zwolle, 1997, pp. 14/15).