Lot 6: CLAES DIRCKSZ. VAN DER HECK

A WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH SCENES FROM THE STORY OF TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL

82 by 114 cm.

oil on panel

With Brütscher, Munich (according to a note at the R.K.D., The Hague).

We are grateful to Marijke de Kinkelder of the R.K.D., The Hague, for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.

Claes Dircksz. van der Heck was born in Alkmaar, where he seems to have been active his entire life. Thieme/Becker record that he was both a landscape and portrait painter, but no portraits seem to have survived thus far. (1 )Besides landscapes with biblical scenes, such as this lot, Van der Heck painted numerous views of the Abbey of Egmond, of which one example is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. A 991). (2)

A painting with an identical landscape in the background, but of different subject matter, was in a sale in Brussels in 1900, as by Abel Grimmer. (3)

1. See U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler..., vol. XVI, Leipzig, 1923, pp. 201-2.
2. See P.J.J. van Thiel et. al., Alle schilderijen van het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1976, p. 262.
3. Sale, Vicomte de Ruffo de Bonneval de la Fare a.o., Brussels, J. Fiévez, 23 May 1900, lot 33, reproduced.