Lot 72: HERMAN VAN SWANEVELT WOERDEN (?) CIRCA 1600 - 1655 PARIS

indistinctly signed, dated and inscribed lower centre: HVSwanev.../Paris 164..

oil on canvas, in a carved and giltwood frame

AN ITALIANATE LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES TOGETHER WITH A MAN ON A DONKEY IN THE FOREGROUND, FISHERMEN NEAR A RIVER, AND HORSEMEN AND OTHER FIGURES ON A BRIDGE BEYOND

71.3 by 100.2 cm.

Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende Landschapsschilders, 10 March-30 May 1965, pp. 104-5, cat. no. 40, reproduced fig. 44.

PROPERTY FROM A DECEASED'S ESTATE

Captain James Alston-Roberts-West, Alscot Park, Stratford-on-Avon;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 17 July 1964, lot 83 (as by Claude Lorrain);
With Daan Cevat, London, by July 1964;
Mrs K.M. Persse, Roxburgh, Co. Galway;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 13 July 1977, lot 5 (bought by Colnaghi for £9,000);
With Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, by 1979-80 (cat. no. 37; according to a note in the R.K.D.).

Originally considered to be a work by Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), this work was correctly identified as a (signed) Van Swanevelt in the Utrecht exhibition of Dutch 17th Century Italianate landscape painters of 1965 (see Exhibited below). This composition was painted in Paris, where the artist was active in 1623, the 1640 and early 1650s, alternating between Woerden and Paris in those periods. From 1629 until 1641 Van Swanevelt was recorded in Rome, where he received the nickname 'Eremiet' (hermit).

This composition can be closely compared with that of another signed painting by Van Swanevelt of 1648, showing An extensive Italianate landscape with peasants resting on a track, a walled town on a hilltop beyond, sold New York, Christie's East, 16 May 1996, lot 12. Not surprisingly, his work at this date is markedly influenced by Claude, who was by then recognised in Paris as the French landscape painter sans pareil.