Lot 44: Abraham Beerstraten (b. Amsterdam 1644)

A castle on a frozen lake with skaters
signed 'A: Beerstraaten' (lower right)
oil on canvas
36 5/8 x 50 3/4 in. (93 x 128.9 cm.)

Neuchâtel, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Maîtres anciens hollandais, 1945, no. 3, illustrated.
Delft, Prinsenhof, Vijftig werken uit de collectien Baszanger te Genève, 1953, no. 6.
Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Cent tableaux de la Collection Baszanger, 1955, no. 3.

W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, 1948, vol. I, p. 47, pl. 48.
L. Réau, Collection Baszanger, [Geneva?], 1950, no. 3, pl. 111.
L. Réau, Collection Baszanger, Les Maîtres Anciens, Geneva, 1967, no. 1, pl. 1, as 'Anthonie Beerstraaten'.
W. Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 1970, vol. I, pl. 65.

with Ver Meer Gallery, London.
Anonymous sale [J. Tomlinson]; Christie's, London, 3 March 1924, lot 98, as 'A. Beerstraten' (99 gns. to Rayte?).
Anonymous sale; Fischer, Lucerne, 18-20 August, 1931.
Lucien Baszanger collection, Geneva, from at least 1950.
Anonymous sale [The Property of a Swiss Collection]; Christie's, London, 29 March 1974, lot 79, as Anthonie Beerstraten, where purchased by the present owner.

The view depicted is of Groot Poelgeest Castle (also known as the Huis Te Horn), situated on an island in the Rhine at Koudekerk, where the Luttike Rhine flows into the Old Rhine. Although the site of the castle remains much as it was in the seventeenth century, little remains of the actual building: only the foundations, the small octagonal tower - visible in the present picture - that formed part of the gatehouse, and the coach house, built in 1645.

The precise date of the original fortification is unknown, as all documentation concerning it seems to have been destroyed with the castle in 1417; it is, however, documented in 1326, when Dirk van Poelgeest took up residence there. Its subsequent history is particularly eventful: it was razed on two further occasions, in 1489 and a century later, when Spanish troops occupied it and then pillaged it wholesale, leaving an uninhabitable wreck. The subsequent restoration, which added the covered gatehouse and towers, left the castle as seen in the present work.

In the past, there has been a degree of confusion amongst historians about the identity of the castle, caused by two other similarly named buildings in the area. The first, known as Small Poelgeest, was built by Jan Poelgeest, brother of the aforementioned Gerrit, in the fourteenth century; the building was destroyed in 1832. There was also another building, in Oegsteest, referred to as Old Poelgeest. The name of this house in particular has caused confusion: it has been suggested that this building was the ancestral home of the Poelgeest family, but that supposition remains unproven. The oldest traceable family to have resided in Old Poelgeest were the Van Alkemades, who gave the building its alternative name of Alkemade.

The building was depicted in two other works by the Beerstraten family: that in the National Museum, Warsaw; that, dated 1665, sold in these Rooms, 10 July 1998, lot 25; and that sold in these Rooms, 29 March 1974, lot 79. Those three have been catalogued as variously by Anthonie, Jan Abrahamsz. and Abraham, but would now probably all be given to Abraham,

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis