BG 150
SALOMON VAN RUYSDAEL
Naarden 1600/03 – 1670 Haarlem
A river view with the town of Weesp
Signed with monogram and dated on the sailing boat: SVR (in ligature) 1650 FE.
Oil on panel: 18 ½ x 25 in / 47 x 63.5 cm
Frame size: 25 ½ x 32 in / 64.8 x 81.3 cm
Provenance:
Marquis de Biencourt;
Gustave Rothan, Paris, 1874;
his sale, Paris, May 29 – 31, 1890, no. 98, for 8,000 FFr. (as “A View of Dordrecht”);
Adolphe Schloss, Paris, and by descent (looted in World War II and later restituted);
Sale Schloss, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, May 25, 1949, no. 54, pl. XXXVIII, for 2,100,000 FFr. (as “A View of Weesp”), where probably purchased by a European private collector;
by descent
Exhibited:
Paris, Palais Bourbon, 1874, no. 455 (as dated 1649)
Literature:
Wolfgang Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael. Eine Einführung in seine Kunst (Berlin, 1938), pp. 130 – 131, no. 522; and in second revised edition (Berlin, 1975), pp. 149 – 50, no. 522
Bernice Davidson, The Frick Collection. An Illustrated Catalogue, vol. 1, (New York, 1968), p. 284, n. 3.
In a reproduction seventeenth century Dutch-style ebony frame
Frame size: 25 ½ x 32 x 2 in / 64.8 x 81.3 x 5.1 cm
Early in his career, Salomon van Ruysdael distinguished himself as one of the originators of naturalistic landscape painting and played an essential part in the invention of “tonalist” painting. In his maturity, after c. 1640, Ruysdael again played an innovative role in the development of new forms of stately river views and calm marines which celebrated the special beauty of Holland’s inland waterways. These often were conceived on a relatively intimate scale and introduced stronger contrasts of light and shade and more colour. The present painting is a prime example of these expansive river views. It depicts sailing boats, including a schouw used for transporting goods and ferrying passengers in the right foreground flying a Dutch flag, and smaller rowing vessels. They appear on the intersection of the Vecht and Smal Weesp Rivers silhouetted before the town of Weesp, which is located about seven miles southeast of Amsterdam. On the horizon on the left is the spire of the Grote Kerk, and in the center the twin towers of the Town Gate. Weesp had been the site of important defensive lines since the Middle Ages, but here it is depicted simply as a small river town viewed from the north. It is illuminated by a low, late afternoon light that casts the immediate foreground in a band of shadow that enhances the scene’s spatial recession. Winds from the west fill the vessels’ sails, sweep the horizon, and send clouds soaring overhead; yet the water, as always with Salomon, remains calm, with its carefully observed surface enlivened by ripples, eddies and just the hint of whitecaps. The darkened and companionably over-populated boats in the foreground appear casually distributed but are in fact arranged with a great thought to optimize their function as repoussoirs, throwing the scene in relief. The sailing vessels in the distance are also artfully situated to enhance the perspective. The little pilings in the water, even the seabirds, play their part in punctuating the expansive space.
In its conception and sweeping design, the present work is very similar to another broad river view, also with a schouw flying the Dutch flag and signed and dated 1650, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 71.98 (Stechow 1938/1975, no. 288, fig. 55). The painting’s composition, with the prominent sailing boat at the right, the rowing boat at the left, and the town appearing as a narrow strip of land in the left distance, also resembles that of the undated painting in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, no. 1112, which Stechow dates to the 1640s (see Stechow 1938/75, p. 26, no. 313, fig. 50). The year 1650 in which Ruysdael dated the present painting was one of his most productive; he dated no fewer than fifteen paintings that year (see Stechow 1938/75, nos. 5, 244, 288, 288A, 363, 363A, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 368A, 368B, and 522). However, most of these works are river scenes with larger motifs and prominent river banks. Rarer and more prized are the panoramic and expansive views like the present work and the painting in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. This distinctive group of pure marines and wide river views, some of which adopt an upright format to enhance to height of the sky, seem to mostly date from after c. 1647 though the 1650s, and are notable for their fine and assured execution, strong palette (blue, black, brown and green) and distinctive silvery tonality; Stechow (p. 26) describes it as resembling “Gediegen Silber”, or solid silver as it appears in its unrefined mineral form. They are also distinguished by their masterful use of value contrasts to create spatial effects and subtle use of atmospheric perspective. As with many of the marines in this group, nearly four-fifths of the present work is devoted to the magnificent sky. Characteristically the artist leaves the horizontal brushwork visible at the horizon to give a windswept aspect to the prospect. Although Ruysdael’s skies always seem compellingly naturalistic and carefully observed, meteorologists have cautioned that his cloud formations rarely conform to those in nature and are largely imaginary (see John Walsh, “Skies and Reality in Dutch Landscapes,” in David Freedberg and Jan de Vries eds. Art in History/ History in Art. Studies in Seventeenth Century Dutch Culture (Santa Monica, 1991), pp. 95 – 117). The present painting seems to have been the first time that Salomon depicted Weesp, but he returned to the subject, including it in the distance in river landscapes at least three other times: in an upright composition with heavily laden ferryboat in a painting dated 1657 in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, no. 715 (Stechow no. 29), and in two horizontal designs, again with ferryboats, dated 1667 (formerly Oppenheim Collection; Stechow no. 538), and of c.1667, in the Frick Collection, New York, no. 5.1.111 (Stechow no. 570).
The painting has a distinguished provenance. Its earliest recorded owner was the Marquis of Biencourt, presumably Charles de Biencourt (1747 – 1824), a military man and member of the Estates General, who in 1791 purchased the famous Château d’Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire. It was later acquired by Gustave Rothan (1822 – 1900), a diplomat and author, whose painting collection was famous in Paris in the 1870s. Rothan lent the painting to an exhibition that he organized in the Palais Bourbon in Paris in 1874 to benefit the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine. Subsequently the painting was acquired by Adolphe Schloss (1842 – 1911), who at the turn of the twentieth century had one of the greatest collections of Dutch art in France. Born in Austria, he emigrated to France in 1871 and made a fortune as a broker to department stores in France and America and as a purveyor to the Russian Court. Schloss assembled a collection of 355 paintings that he installed in his home at 38 avenue Henri-Martin. It included great paintings by Petrus Christus, Isenbrandt, Gossaert, Frans Hals, Jacob Ruisdael, excellent Dutch genre scenes and landscapes, and several paintings attributed to Rembrandt. At his death in 1911, the collection passed to his wife Lucie and their four children. To protect the collection from possible German air raids, they moved the pictures in 1939 to the Château de Chambon in central France. After the Germans invaded France, the Schloss collection was singled out as a source of pictures for Hitler and Göring. On November 27, 1943, 262 Schloss paintings were sent to Germany, while 49 remained in Paris under the protection of the Louvre. After the war, the Allies recovered part of the collection and returned the paintings to France. Combined with the pictures that had remained at the Louvre, 162 paintings in total were restituted to the family in 1949. The Schloss heirs held three auctions in that year; the present painting appeared in the sale in May 25, 1949, passing to a new owner, in whose family it descended.
Peter C. Sutton.
Salomon van Ruysdael, Marine, signed with monogram and dated 1650. Oil on panel: 13 5/8 x 17 1/8 in / 34.6 x 43.5 cm. ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Salomon van Ruysdael, River scene: men dragging a net with a distant view of Weesp, circa 1667. Oil on canvas: 26 ¼ in x 35 1/8 in / 66.6 x 89.2 cm. ©The Frick Collection, New York.
SALOMON VAN RUYSDAEL
Naarden 1600/03 – 1670 Haarlem
Salomon van Ruysdael was born in Naarden in Gooiland. He was initially called Salomon de Go(o)yer but he and his brother Isack (1599 – 1677), who also was an artist, adopted the name Ruysdael, possibly from Castle Ruisdael, near their father’s home town. It should be noted that their spelling of the name was different from that of Salomon’s nephew and Isack’s son, the famous landscapist, Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29 – 1682). Salomon entered the painting guild in Haarlem in 1623 and seems to have lived and worked in Haarlem his entire life, although his paintings prove that he travelled throughout the Netherlands, depicting, among other places, Leiden, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Arnhem, Alkmaar, Rhenen, Dordrecht, and of course, Weesp. Salomon’s earliest dated work is of 1626 and he was already praised in print by the chronicler of Haarlem, Samuel van Ampzing, in 1628. His teacher is unknown but his early works of 1626 – 29 closely resemble those of Esaias van de Velde (1587 – 1630), who worked in Haarlem from 1609 to 1618. His early paintings also reveal many parallels with the paintings of Jan van Goyen and to a lesser extent Pieter de Molijn (1595 – 1661) and Pieter van Santvoort (1604/5 – 1635). Like many Dutch artists, Salomon had a second career as a merchant and dealt in blue dye for Haarlem bleacheries. In addition to landscapes and marines he painted a handful of still lifes in his later years. Salomon was buried in Saint Bavo’s Church in Haarlem on November 3, 1670.
Peter C Sutton.