Lot 6: JAN VAN DER HEYDEN GORINCHEM 1637 - 1712 AMSTERDAM

A LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE GRAZING IN AN OPEN FIELD BEFORE A MANOR HOUSE, A MILKMAID AT WORK

A LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE GRAZING IN AN OPEN FIELD BEFORE A MANOR HOUSE, A MILKMAID AT WORK

measurements note
32 by 39.5 cm.; 12 1/2 by 15 1/2 in.

bears initials lower right: JH
with inventory number 24 on an old label adhered to the reverse

oil on oak panel

PROVENANCE

Rolin Robert Collection;
With Edward Speelman, London;
From whom acquired by the late father of the present owners in 1960.

LITERATURE

H. Wagner, Jan van der Heyden, Amsterdam & Haarlem 1971, p. 108, no. 183, reproduced p.167

NOTE

As pointed out by Dr. Peter Sutton (written communication, 6 February 2006), to whom we are grateful, this landscape reveals the initial influence of Adriaen van de Velde on the work of Jan van der Heyden. In type and handling it can be compared closely to Van der Heyden's similar horizontal view of a country house today in the National Gallery, London (see H. Wagner, under Literature, p. 108, no. 184, reproduced p. 168), which along with the present work can be dated circa 1670.

Although best known as a painter of townscapes, Van der Heyden also specialised in the depiction of rural scenes, which range from 'pure' landscapes (of which some forty examples survive), through agrarian scenes with manor houses (such as the present work), to views of the grand country houses of the wealthy Dutch merchant class, such as his view of the house at Goudstein, painted for his patron Joan Huydecoper II, today at Apsley House, London (see op. cit., p. 95, no. 125, reproduced p. 155).