Tolbrug bij Kortenhoef: a carriage approaching a drawbridge

Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël, also called 'the colourist of the The Hague School', is considered the polder landscape painter par excellence. Quiet Dutch polder landscapes with open skies are his favoured topics. Gabriël was a student of the famous landscape painter Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862) and Cornelis Lieste (1817-1861). Under influence of the Barbizon School and the painter Willem Roelofs (1822-1897), he developed his en plein air painting. He was the first to move to scenic Kortenhoef, where he painted so often and with so much pleasure that the region soon was called 'Land of Gabriel'.
The drawbridge at Kortenhoef inspired Gabriel to produce a series of at least five comparable works. In the present lot a carriage is approaching. Gabriel painted other versions with drying fishing nets or a lonely figure at exactly the same spot. The carriage in the present lot seems to emphasize the vastness of the polder landscape (See: M. Peters a.o., Paul Joseph Constatin Gabriël 1828-1903, Colorist van de Haagse School, Dordrecht 1998, p. 10 and p. 105).