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Lot Essay
Painted in 1648, the year Ruisdael joined the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke, this is a seminal early work by the greatest of all Dutch landscapists. Exceptionally well preserved, the picture provides an astonishing demonstration of Ruisdael’s prodigious talent and his instinctive feel for compositional harmony and poetic mood. Barely twenty years of age in 1648, Ruisdael had only been painting independently for a couple of years (his earliest dated works are from 1646), yet already he had managed to outshine his rivals with his technical virtuosity and his natural ability to evoke light and atmosphere. Ruisdael’s best early works, painted before he embarked on his journey east to Westphalia in 1650, comprise some of his most revered and ground breaking pictures, or as Peter Sutton put it: ‘some of his most beautiful and subtle works that had a lasting influence in the history of art’ (catalogue of the exhibition, Old Master Paintings from the Hascoe Collection, Greenwich, Bruce Museum, 2005, under no. 8).
In these early years Ruisdael found his inspiration in the local countryside in and around Haarlem. He painted a View of Egmond aan Zee, a fishing village about thirty five kilometres northwest of Haarlem, also in 1648 (New Hampshire, Currier Museum of Art), and in the same year produced Dunes by the sea, which adopts a diagonal composition similar to that used in this example (fig. 1; sold from the Hascoe collection at Christie’s, New York, 4 June 2014, lot 38, $1,805,000). Whereas a seascape recedes into the distance of the Hascoe panel, here Ruisdael depicts a cornfield (which was to become a signature motif in his mature output), with the rooftops of a village breaking the skyline, a plume of smoke emerging from a chimney. As E.J. Walford was first to observe (op. cit.) Ruisdael probably based his composition on a reversal of an etching Landscape with a hut and a shed that he made in 1646 (fig. 2), or from an associated sketch. The diagonal recession into space is established in the painting by a stream, reflecting light in the foreground and winding away towards the cornfield, running parallel to a track. On this track, in the centre of the composition, Ruisdael introduces a shepherd ambling away from the viewer, his dogs following behind, as if to provide a physical expression of the languid atmosphere of the summer evening.
Ruisdael no doubt owed his precocious command of landscape painting in large part to his upbringing within a family of artists. He is thought to have trained both with his father Isaack van Ruisdael (1599–1677) and with his more gifted uncle Salomon van Ruysdael (1602–1670), whose tonal landscapes and fluid application of paint exerted a strong influence on him. The fluent brushwork used in the evening sky in the present work is certainlyreminiscent of his uncle’s work. Ruisdael was also influenced in his formative years by Cornelis Vroom (1591–1661), who is credited with introducing a host of naturalistic techniques to Haarlem landscape painting in the 1630s, more than a decade before. Ruisdael’s filigree treatment of the trees in the present work and the subtlety of his palette owes a clear debt to Vroom.
A note on the provenance
The first notable owner of the picture on record was the Yorkshire based collector John Enrico Fattorini (1878–1949). Fattorini, who had made his fortune as a visionary retailer, developed a passion for collecting, acting with the advice of the London dealing firm Duits. He was especially interested in Dutch cabinet pictures, acquiring, with admirable discipline, a relatively small number of pictures of superlative quality. These included Willem van de Velde’s Calm, sold most recently from the Dreesmann collection (Christie’s, London, 3 July 2012, lot 18; now private collection), Gerard ter Borch's The Music Lesson (Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1997, lot 7; now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles); and a second painting by Ruisdael, of similar distinction, acquired a year after he bought this one – a Water-Mill (sold Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 2004, lot 23; private collection).
In 1956 he sold this picture, through his dealer Duits, to the celebrated Amsterdam collector Hans Wetzlar. Wetzlar began collecting in the 1930s and over the next 35 years formed one of the most important private collections of Old Master Paintings of his day. Dutch Golden Age paintings were at the core of the collection – still lifes, genre scenes, religious works and landscapes. Wetzlar also collected Flemish pictures as well as Early Netherlandish works, inspired throughout by the great art historian Max J. Friëdlander who was a lifelong friend. Wetzlar had a highly cultivated eye and a deep understanding of the art market. His collection, carefully displayed at his home in the Roemer Visscherstraat in Amsterdam, was open to those who were interested to learn and discuss Netherlandish painting and he was always willing to loan to exhibitions. His taste and his passion for collecting inspired a whole generation of collectors in Holland.
Dutch landscapes lay at the heart of Wetzlar’s collection and the present work was arguably the star. When a large portion of the collection (134 paintings) was dispersed in the landmark Wetzlar sale at Sotheby’s in 1977, five works by Ruisdael were offered, including an outstanding Seascape sold recently at Christie’s (7 December 2017, lot 9, £1,448,750). The present picture fetched the second highest price in the entire sale. It was bought back by the family and has remained there ever since.
In these early years Ruisdael found his inspiration in the local countryside in and around Haarlem. He painted a View of Egmond aan Zee, a fishing village about thirty five kilometres northwest of Haarlem, also in 1648 (New Hampshire, Currier Museum of Art), and in the same year produced Dunes by the sea, which adopts a diagonal composition similar to that used in this example (fig. 1; sold from the Hascoe collection at Christie’s, New York, 4 June 2014, lot 38, $1,805,000). Whereas a seascape recedes into the distance of the Hascoe panel, here Ruisdael depicts a cornfield (which was to become a signature motif in his mature output), with the rooftops of a village breaking the skyline, a plume of smoke emerging from a chimney. As E.J. Walford was first to observe (op. cit.) Ruisdael probably based his composition on a reversal of an etching Landscape with a hut and a shed that he made in 1646 (fig. 2), or from an associated sketch. The diagonal recession into space is established in the painting by a stream, reflecting light in the foreground and winding away towards the cornfield, running parallel to a track. On this track, in the centre of the composition, Ruisdael introduces a shepherd ambling away from the viewer, his dogs following behind, as if to provide a physical expression of the languid atmosphere of the summer evening.
Ruisdael no doubt owed his precocious command of landscape painting in large part to his upbringing within a family of artists. He is thought to have trained both with his father Isaack van Ruisdael (1599–1677) and with his more gifted uncle Salomon van Ruysdael (1602–1670), whose tonal landscapes and fluid application of paint exerted a strong influence on him. The fluent brushwork used in the evening sky in the present work is certainlyreminiscent of his uncle’s work. Ruisdael was also influenced in his formative years by Cornelis Vroom (1591–1661), who is credited with introducing a host of naturalistic techniques to Haarlem landscape painting in the 1630s, more than a decade before. Ruisdael’s filigree treatment of the trees in the present work and the subtlety of his palette owes a clear debt to Vroom.
A note on the provenance
The first notable owner of the picture on record was the Yorkshire based collector John Enrico Fattorini (1878–1949). Fattorini, who had made his fortune as a visionary retailer, developed a passion for collecting, acting with the advice of the London dealing firm Duits. He was especially interested in Dutch cabinet pictures, acquiring, with admirable discipline, a relatively small number of pictures of superlative quality. These included Willem van de Velde’s Calm, sold most recently from the Dreesmann collection (Christie’s, London, 3 July 2012, lot 18; now private collection), Gerard ter Borch's The Music Lesson (Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1997, lot 7; now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles); and a second painting by Ruisdael, of similar distinction, acquired a year after he bought this one – a Water-Mill (sold Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 2004, lot 23; private collection).
In 1956 he sold this picture, through his dealer Duits, to the celebrated Amsterdam collector Hans Wetzlar. Wetzlar began collecting in the 1930s and over the next 35 years formed one of the most important private collections of Old Master Paintings of his day. Dutch Golden Age paintings were at the core of the collection – still lifes, genre scenes, religious works and landscapes. Wetzlar also collected Flemish pictures as well as Early Netherlandish works, inspired throughout by the great art historian Max J. Friëdlander who was a lifelong friend. Wetzlar had a highly cultivated eye and a deep understanding of the art market. His collection, carefully displayed at his home in the Roemer Visscherstraat in Amsterdam, was open to those who were interested to learn and discuss Netherlandish painting and he was always willing to loan to exhibitions. His taste and his passion for collecting inspired a whole generation of collectors in Holland.
Dutch landscapes lay at the heart of Wetzlar’s collection and the present work was arguably the star. When a large portion of the collection (134 paintings) was dispersed in the landmark Wetzlar sale at Sotheby’s in 1977, five works by Ruisdael were offered, including an outstanding Seascape sold recently at Christie’s (7 December 2017, lot 9, £1,448,750). The present picture fetched the second highest price in the entire sale. It was bought back by the family and has remained there ever since.