Lot 293: ANTHONIE VAN BORSSUM

ANTHONIE VAN BORSSUM AMSTERDAM 1630 - 1677 A MOONLIT RIVER LANDSCAPE bears false Aert van der Neer double monogram and date lower center AV (in compendium) DN (in compendium) 1645 oil on panel, unframed 27 by 45 1/4 in.; 68.6 by 114.9 cm.

Madrid, May 1921, no. 27;
The Hague, Het landschap door Hollanders gezien, 16e-20e eeuw, 1922 (as Aert van der Neer).

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the 17th Century, 1923, vol. VII, p. 414, no. 382 (as by Aert van der Neer).

Graf Sierstorpff, Schloss Driburg;
His sale, Berlin, Lepke, 19 April 1887, lot 7, as by Aert van der Neer;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Fk. Muller, 16 December 1919, lot 71 (as by Aert van der Neer);
A.W.M. Mensing;
His sale, Amsterdam, Fk. Muller, 15 November 1938, lot 73 (as by Aert van der Neer);
Anonymous sale ("Property of a Private Collector"), London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1996, lot 36 (as Anthonie van Borssum);
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 18 October 2000, lot 44 (as Anthonie van Borssom);
There purchased by the present collector.

Though the present lot had long been published by Aert van der Neer, when last sold in 2000, both Professor Werner Sumowski and Dr. Wolfgang Schulz confirmed the attribution to van Borssum based on photographs. Van Borssum's style was greatly influenced by the work of van der Neer and by those of van der Neer's friend, Rafael Govertsz. Camphuysen. Van Borssum completed a number of signed works of similar composition, most notable of which is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. A 744). Because only five of the artist's paintings are dated, scholars have had difficulty in tracing his stylistic development. However, his moonlit landscapes painted in the manner of van der Neer have been identified as some of his most successful works. The signature and date, and the vegetation upon which they are to be found, have shown to be a later addition; their removal might reveal van Borssum's signature.