Lot 19

PROPERTY OF THE LATE MR H.G.TH. CRONE, TO BE SOLD TO BENEFIT THE CRONE-HAVER DROEZE FUND, UNDER PROTECTION OF THE PRINS BERNHARD CULTUURFONDS, THE NETHERLANDS

Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael (Haarlem 1628/9-1682 Amsterdam)

A wooded river landscape with a traveller and dog

Details

Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael (Haarlem 1628/9-1682 Amsterdam)
A wooded river landscape with a traveller and dog
oil on panel
9 7/8 x 13 ¼ in. (25.1 x 33.6 cm.)

Provenance

William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon (c. 1768-1835); his sale, Christie's, London, 27 April 1816 (=2nd day), lot 43 (108 gns. with companion to Seguier).
George Watson Taylor; his sale, Christie's, London, 13 June 1823 (=1st day), lot 43 (107 gns. to John Smith for the following).
Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774-1848), and by descent to,
Francis Baring, 5th Baron Ashburton (1866-1938), by whom sold en bloc in August 1907 to the following,
with Thomas Agnew and Sons, London.
with C. Sedelmeyer, Paris.
S. de Jonge, Paris, by 1911.
(Possibly), with Kunsthandel M. Schultess, Basel, circa 1930.

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters, London, 1835, VI, p. 59, no. 188, as 'A View in Holland'.
G.F. Waagen, Kunstwerke und Künstler in England, Berlin, 1838, II, p. 96.
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, II, p. 110.
W. Martin, 'Ausstellung altholländischer Bilder in Pariser Privatbesitz’, Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, IV, 1911, p. 506, no. 135, pl. 110.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1912, IV, p. 232, no. 735, as ‘After the Flood’.
J. Rosenberg, Jacob van Ruisdael, Berlin, 1928, p. 94, no. 364.
S. Slive, A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, New Haven and London, 2001, p. 328, no. 440.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition of works by the Old Masters, and by deceased Masters of the British School, 1890, no. 110 (lent by Lord Ashburton).
Paris, Salle du Jeu de Paume, Jardin des Tuileries, Exposition des Grands et Petits Maîtres Hollandais du XVIIe siècle, 28 April-10 July 1911, no. 135 (lent by M. de Jonge).

Engraved

W. Austin

Brought to you by

Imogen Jones

ijones@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2363

Lot Essay

Dating to the early 1650s, this small wooded river landscape has been associated traditionally with three other panels by Ruisdael. Almost identical in size, this series consisted of a Dune landscape with an oak (Zurich, Ruzicka collection), a Wooded landscape with a river and angler (whereabouts unknown) and a Harvest field and road with trees and cottages (Private collection; sold Christie’s, London, 9 July 1993, lot 129). These pictures were engraved in four undated plates by the London engraver William Austin (1721-1820) when the paintings were in the collection of William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon. While only the present picture and the Zurich Dunes were included in the Earl’s sale in 1816 (as lots 43 and 44 respectively), by the time of their next appearance at auction in 1823, from the collection of George Watson Taylor, all four panels had been reunited, but were separated into two distinct pairs. The Dune landscape with an oak was sold as ‘The Companion’ to this Wooded river landscape with a traveller and dog, while the Wooded landscape with a river and angler and Harvest field and road with trees and cottages were sold as companion lots on the second day of the sale. It is not clear whether Ruisdael himself would have intended the pictures to serve as a set of four or two pendants, or if their similarity in scale and treatment led later collectors to group the works together.

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