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THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

A WINTER LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES SKATING ON A FROZEN RIVER BEFORE A BRIDGE, A TOWN BEYOND

measurements note
diameter: 11cm.; 4 1/4 in.

signed and dated lower right: I. V GOYEN / 1625

oil on oak panel, circular, in a fine carved and gilt wood frame

PROVENANCE

Probably from the Six Collection, Amsterdam;
Acquired during the 1920s by the mother of the present owner;
Thence by direct descent.

LITERATURE

'Des chefs - d'oeuvre pour décor quotidien' in Connaissance des Arts, January 1963, pp. 50-59, illustrated, as hanging in a private collection of an anonymous 'Madame X' in an appartment in Avenue Foch, Paris;
H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, Amsterdam 1973, vol. II, p. 5, no. 5, reproduced.

NOTE

Some twenty small circular winter landscapes by Jan van Goyen (including the present work) are listed by Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck in his 1973 monograph on the artist, ranging in date from 1621 to 1627. The present scene, dated 1625, is directly inspired by a chalk drawing by Van Goyen's teacher, Esaias van de Velde, which forms part of an important sketchbook by the artist (of which some fifteen sheets survive), dated by Keyes to around 1618-20, immediately following the artist's move to The Hague from Haarlem in mid-1618 (see fig. 1).¹ Van Goyen trained with Van de Velde in 1617-18, although he returned to his native town of Leiden in 1618, where he was married on 5th August, the timing of which implies either a slightly earlier dating for the sketchbook or, perhaps more plausibly, the continued contact between the two artists after their departure from Haarlem in mid-1618.

The present and preceding lot have been combined to make a composed pair since at least the early part of the 20th century. Their proximity in style and handling reaffirms the dependance of Van Goyen's early style on that of his master Esaias van de Velde; indeed, it was not until around 1626/27 that Van Goyen began to evolve his own distinctive style of 'tonal painting' which would continue the development of naturalistic Dutch landscape painting well into the second half of the 17th century.

¹ See G.S. Keyes, Esaias van der Velde, Doornspijk 1984, p. 237, no. D78, reproduced plate 107.