Jan Wijnants (?Haarlem c. 1635-1684 Amsterdam)

A wooded river landscape with figures resting by a sandbank, a traveller and a dog on a path, a church beyond

Details

Jan Wijnants (?Haarlem c. 1635-1684 Amsterdam)
A wooded river landscape with figures resting by a sandbank, a traveller and a dog on a path, a church beyond
signed with initials and indistinctly dated 'J·W:16...'
oil on oak panel
6 3/8 x 9 3/8 in. (16.3 x 23.6 cm.)

Provenance

(Presumably) Louis-François de Bourbon, prince de Conti (1716-1776); (†) his sale, (‘Catalogue d’une Riche Collection De Tableaux Des Maîtres les plus célebres des trois Écoles... Qui composent le cabinet de feu Son Altesse Sérérnissime Monseigneur le Prince De Conti, Prince du Sang, & Grand Prieur de France’), Paris, 8 April 1777, lot 479, ‘Deux beaux paysages frais & piquants, peints sur bois; ils portent chacun 9 pouces 6 lignes de haut, sur 7 pouces 3 lignes de large’ (940 livres).
M. Marin by 1790.
with Leonard Koetser, London, by 1965, where acquired by,
Sir Patrick Donner (1904-1988), and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., VI, London, 1829, p. 240, no. 41.

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Lot Essay

This exceptionally fine landscape can be compared with the panel of larger dimensions (29.7 x 36.8 cm.), dated 1665, now in the National Gallery, London. A libertine of royal lineage and vast wealth, Louis-François de Bourbon, prince de Conti (1717-1776) was one of the most ambitious and distinguished art collectors of the end of the Ancien Régime. His collection of 760 pictures, sold at his residence, the Palais du Temple, in April 1777, comprised one of the great auctions of the century, meticulously catalogued and recorded in marginal illustrations by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin.

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