Lot 57: Hendrick de Meyer , Rotterdam circa 1620 - before 1690 Boats and ships on the river Maas, the Grote Kerk and Dordrecht in the distance oil on panel

bears initials lower centre: A.C. oil on panel

measurements note 67.1 by 106 cm.; 26 3/8 by 41 3/4 in.

In the possession of the family of the present owner since at least the end of the nineteenth century.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
This is one of several views of the river Maas before Dordecht painted by De Meyer and his contemporaries. A comparable painting by De Meyer, signed in monogram and in which a very similar ferry appears, was formerly with Brian Koetser in London,υ1 and another, dated 1648, was sold in these Rooms, 8 April 1987, lot 60. A similar work by De Meyer's contemporary C.W. Schut, about whom little else is known, is in Hamburg, Kunsthalle.υ2 The prototype for this and other similar views by De Meyer is probably Simon de Vlieger's signed and dated painting of 1649 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, which shows Admiral and Governor Frederik Hendrik II of Orange (1583-1647) visiting the Dutch inshore fleet off Dordrecht in June 1646.υ3 1. For which see L.J. Bol. Die Holländische Marinemalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Brunswick 1973, p. 269, reproduced fig. 272.
2. Ibid., p. 270, fig. 274.
3. W. Prohaska, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The Paintings, London 1997, p. 85, reproduced.