Lot 30: Attributed to Hendrick Avercamp (Amsterdam 1585-1634 Kampen)

Elegant ladies and gentlemen taking to the ice on a frozen river with skaters and a town beyond oil on panel 6 1/8 x 10 7/8 in. (15.5 x 27.7 cm.) PROVENANCE Duschnitz collection, Vienna, 1920 (wax seal on the reverse). with the Galerie Internationale, The Hague, 1934. Mrs. M. van Es-Dirksen, Rotterdam, 1936, and by descent to the present owners. LITERATURE C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp 1585-1634 bijgenaamd "De Stomme van Campen" en Barent Avercamp 1612-1679 "Schilders tot Campen", 1933, p. 232, no. S435; 2nd edn., D.B. Hensbroek-Van der Poel, ed., 1979, p. 240, nos. S435 and S II.1 (see below). EXHIBITION The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Oude Kunst uit Haagsch Bezit, 12 December 1936-31 January 1937, no. 27, as Hendrick Avercamp or Arent Arentsz. NOTES The present picture was last seen in public in 1937 and has remained in the collection of the same family ever since. Although it was accepted as autograph by Welcker in her seminal catalogue of 1933 ( loc. cit. ), the attribution was subsequently rejected by Hensbroek-van der Poel in the 1979 revised edition, though it is unclear whether or not she saw the actual picture. Recent examination suggests that, although unsigned, the present picture should indeed be regarded as autograph. The chronology of Avercamp's work is not easy to establish owing to the paucity of dated works (only one picture between 1609 and 1625 is reliably dated). However, the present example can be dated confidently to circa 1625. By this time, his pictures are characterised by a lower vantage point and horizon line. Furthermore, the viewpoint is moved closer to the figures so that they are shown in a relatively large format in contrast to the profusion of protagonists seen from afar in the early panoramas for which Avercamp is best known. The present picture relates closely to a number of drawings by the artist, for example the Skaters on the Ice in the Royal Collection, in which six elegantly attired figures are seen in close-up on the ice. Their costumes, which are entirely consistent with those worn here, are dated by Dr. Aileen Ribeiro to circa 1620-1625 (see C. White and C. Crawley, The Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 149-150, no. 240). This dating is consistent with a dendrochronological analysis of the panel, conducted by Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh and Mr Ian Tyres (Sheffield University) in October 2001, which has established a felling date of 1620. The picture is notable for the large number of pentiments. Many of the outlines around the figures have been re-worked, for instance around the legs of the men on the extreme right and left, and the dresses worn by the two women on the left. The boat-hook held by the man on the left has been reduced. More prominent is the drawing of a dog and the painted outline of a man's leg at the right hand edge. Judging from the chamfering on the reverse it is possible that the panel has been cut by some 4 cm. on the right, perhaps by the artist himself whilst still working on the picture, for the drawing of the dog was never worked up. Interestingly, a strong suggestion as to the artist's initial design is given by the signed picture offered at Sotheby's, London, 25 November 1970, in which a young man stands, leg extended, with a dog at the left edge. That picture is closely comparable to this one. Eight elegantly dressed figures are shown from a similar vantage point with inward looking figures at the sides used to frame the composition. A drawing for the three right hand figures, datable to 1621, is in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem. Another comparable work, also signed, is the Ice Scene with Golfers, in the Speelman collection, exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in October 1996. In both pictures Avercamp focuses on a small group of individuals in the immediate foreground. Painted with portrait-like fidelity and with a rich palette they are strikingly different in both cases to the more schematic treatment of the background figures. As observed by Welcker ( op. cit. ) the town on the horizon is probably Kampen. Although no drawing for the figures can be traced, some of them do correspond with other pictures. The two figures attaching their skates in the right centre may derive from the earlier picture in the Baron von Wijnbergen collection, Utrecht, in which they recur in the right foreground (see C.J. Welcker, ibid., p. 209, no. S 33.1 and p. 208, no. S 28, fig. XXIV). The female skater in the centre compares closely with the lady skating with a gentleman in a picture on copper offered at Christie's, London, 4 April 1986, lot 81 as 'Attributed to Hendrick Avercamp'.