Lot 114: Jan van Kessel , Amsterdam 1641-1680 Fishermen on a River Bank before the Ruins of the Chapel of Eyckendynen, near the Hague oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 30 by 26 in.; 76.2 by 66 cm.

Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum [Private Collector's Works], 1925, lent by Julius Weiler.

Probably Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, 1760, for 9 guilders to 'Zaayer';
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Nobleman"), New York, Christie's, October 5, 1995, lot 71.

The present landscape, datable to circa 1664, reveals the keen interest that Jan van Kessel had in depicting the topography of his native Holland. Van Kessel painted the ruins of the Roman Catholic Chapel at Eyckenduynen, which were destroyed in 1581 by Order of the States of Holland for fear that it would be a focus of Roman Catholic worship, on two other occasions, each time depicting the ruins from a different angle.υ1 Eyckenduynen was to the south of The Hague on the road to Loosduynen, and its ruins and cemetery were famous as a destination for pilgrims. Van Kessel's choice of subject matter here places the present picture well within the tradition of seventeenth century Dutch landscape painting. The disappearing monuments of northern and southern Holland were a popular theme among the leading artists of the day, as seen, for example (and perhaps most famously), in the works of Jacob van Ruisdael, van Kessel's probable teacher. These ruins, set within lush forests and plains, allowed artists in two dimensional form to express the Dutch preoccupation with the passage of time and the idea that humans (and their creations) are mortal beings that exist within an ongoing temporal process.υ2 The destroyed chapel at Eykenduynen, whose derelict condition provided a marked contrast with the fertility of the surrounding landscape, provided a perfect setting for such expression. υIn fact, almost fifty years earlier, Willem Buytewech, in his series of engravings, Ten Small Landscapes, published by C. Visscher in 1621, dedicated one engraving of the series to the ruins of the chapel at Eykenduynen (see fig. 1, now in the Rijkspretenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.) In his engraving, Buytewech shows that just a tower and some decayed walls remain of the site. In the present painting van Kessel documents additional losses to the tower's masonry. The present landscape is entirely consistent with van Kessel's other works from the early 1660s. The color of the bricks and the articulation of the reflections in the water, as well as the manner of execution found in the dark passages of the trees and the woods in the right middle ground are typical of the artist. The two trees that dominate the right of the composition show the influence of Meindert Hobbema, van Kessel's close friend. Upon firsthand inspection (November 9, 1995) Alice Davies endorsed the attribution of the present painting to Jan van Kessel. The present lot will be sold with an expertise from Walther Bernt, who described it as a "significant, characteristic and well preserved picture..."υ3 1. The first, signed JvKes...formerly with Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, circa 1928-30, is now in a private collection. The second, formerly in the Pfieffer Collection, Hannover, is now lost, and is known only through an old photograph at the Rijksbureau voor Kuntshistoriche Documentatie. (See, A. Davies, Jan van Kessel, Doornspijk 1992, pp. 125-26, cat. nos. 16 and 17, respectively.)
2. C. Levesque, "Haarlem Landscapes and Ruins: Nature Transformed," in Time and Transformation in Dutch 17th Century Art, Louisville 2005, p. 53. 3. The expertise is dated from Munich, December, 2, 1975.