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PROPERTY FROM A EUROPEAN COLLECTION

FOREST INTERIOR

FOREST INTERIOR

95.5 by 80.5cm., 38 1/4 by 31 3/4 in.

signed B.C.Koekkoek ft 1850 l.r.; stamped with the artist's wax seal and authenticated by the artist on the reverse (fig. 1)

oil on panel

PROVENANCE

H.C. du Bois, The Hague
Sale: Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 25 May 1971
Sale: Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 23 October 2000, lot 283
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

EXHIBITED

Berlin, Berliner Akademische Kunstausstellung, 1850

LITERATURE

Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Dresden, 1891-1901, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 176, no. 7
F. Gorissen, B.C. Koekkoek 1803-1862. Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Düsseldorf, 1962, no. 50/97, illustrated
A. Nollert, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862), Prins der Landschapsschilders, Zwolle, 1997, p. 53, no. 46, illustrated

NOTE

Forest Interior was painted in 1850 when Barend Cornelis Koekkoek was at the pinnacle of his artistic career. In 1834 he had settled in the German duke-city Cleves. The impressive Rhine landscape and age-old forests of the surrounding countryside, which had attracted Dutch artists since the seventeenth century, matched Koekkoek's own romantic, poetic ideal. In his book Herinneringen en Mededeelingen van eenen Landschapschilder (Thoughts and Recollections of a Landscapist), published in 1841, Koekkoek hinted at the underlying reasons for his move. 'To be sure' he writes, 'our fatherland boasts no rocks, waterfalls, high mountains or romantic valleys. Proud, sublime nature is not to be found in our land'.

In Cleves, where he would spend the rest of his life, Koekkoek painted his most important landscapes, ranging from extensive river valleys to idyllic forest views dominated by one or more oaks, as in the present work. It was thus that he initiated a style of landscape painting that is now generally referred to as 'Cleves Romanticism', and which is characterised by a fusion of realism (or sincere study of nature) and a tendency to idealise the landscape.

Unlike Koekkoek's panoramic landscapes with their wide, open vistas, the present work is dense and enclosed, with large gnarled old oak trees - one of the hallmarks of his style - filling most of the composition. In 1839 Koekkoek had sold a similar composition to the Dutch King Willem II (1792-1849), who would become a collector of his works. The King's woodland landscape, for which Koekkoek won two gold medals, shows the same contrast between overwhelming landscape and idyllic staffage. For Koekkoek, the majestic, age-old oaks symbolised the divine powers of creation. The figures in the present work, however, have a more narrative character, indicating the influence of German Romantic painters such as Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885), whose paintings feature hermits as a recurrent theme. In the present work a hermit converses with a peasant girl, out gathering wood with a companion.

Like other Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek painted the motif of tiny figures within imposing, majestic natural environments to contrast humble humanity with the greatness of creation. However, true to the precepts of 'Cleves Romanticism', the symbolism in Forest Interior is subsidiary to the celebration and portrayal of an ideal landscape. The contrasts of light and shadow and masterfully rendered details of the oak trees demonstrate Koekkoek's unique painterly talent, while the fresh colours and bright sunlit spots render a clarity and richness to the composition that is typical of Koekkoek's paintings of this period.