Lot 891: PAULUS CONSTANTIJN LA FARGUE (1729-1782) SCENE AT

PAULUS CONSTANTIJN LA FARGUE (1729-1782) SCENE AT HALFWEG signed and dated P C la Fargue pinx 1777, panel, 32 x 44cm Provenance: Sold at auction in The Hague (Kann), 24 August 1803, lot 58 (as 'Een Gezicht op Halfweegen Haarlem, ryk gestoffeerd en Meesterlyk geschildert door P.C. La Fargue, op paneel, hoog 13, breed 15 duim [34 x 39.3cm]), bt. I Kann for f14.15; anon sale (the property of Mrs E Asscher, deceased), Christie, Manson & Woods, 6 May 1938, lot 41 (as P C LA FARGUE. A VIEW OF HALFWEG, HAARLEM, with figures on a road in the foreground. signed, and dated 1777. On panel 12 ½ in. by 17 ½ in [ 31.8 x 45.5cm]), bt. Knoedler for £54.12.0. Paulus Constantijn la Fargue (and his younger brother Jacob Elias) made several sketches of Halfweg. A highly finished wash drawing en grisaille of 1778 (the year after the present painting) now in the Amsterdam Historical Museum is taken from precisely the same spot and has very similar staffage. It is illustrated I Oud and L van Oosterzee, Oude tekeningen in het bezit van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, waaronder de collectie Fodor. Deel 5. Nederlandse tekenaars geboren tussen 1660 en 1745, Zwolle 1999, p86, no 68. The picturesque village of Halfweg (midway between Amsterdam and Haarlem) was popular with 18th century contemporaries of the brothers la Fargue, including Jan ten Compe, Jan Ekels the Elder and Johannes Janson, the last of which painted it at least three times. The fine classical building on the left, with its swan capped piers is the Huis Swanenburg, the seat of the Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland built in 1645-8 by the architect, painter and printmaker Pieter Post (1608-1669) (see J J Terwen and K A Ottenheym, Pieter Post (1608-1669), Architect, Zutphen 1993, pp155-160). To the right is the Spaarndammer-dijk behind which is the 'IJ' (a broad river, originally a bay). In the distance can be seen the Haarlemmertrekvaart (Haarlem ship canal). Following the reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer the Huis Swanenburg became a sugar factory. Only its classical façade remains today. Mellors & Kirk is very grateful for the assistance of Dr Charles Dumas of the Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague in identifying the topography. The work will be included in Dr Charles Dumas' forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the La Fargue family.