Lot 63: * PHILIPS KONINCK AMSTERDAM 1619 - 1688

bears inscription on the verso, lower left (indistinctly visible through the backing sheet): By Dord**** (possibly Dordrecht)

PANORAMIC LANDSCAPE WITH THE MOUTH OF A RIVER

5 1/4 by 10 11/16 in.; 135 by 272 mm.

watercolor and gouache over touches of red chalk

H. Gerson, Philips Koninck, Berlin 1936, p. 141, cat.no. Z. 29;
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol.6, New York 1982, p. 3336, cat.no. 1506x, illustrated

Johannes Noll, sale Frankfurt, October 6, 1912, lot 145, reproduced;
Possibly Mrs. Christian R. Holmes: a ticket to an exhibition of May 16-19, 1942 at The Chimneys, Sands Point, Long Island, Mrs. Holmes' country residence, is stuck to the back of the frame, but the drawing was apparently not included in the subsequent auction of that property at Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, on September 26-30, 1944;
bears annotation on the back of the frame: No 101 From the Govin Dech*ville Collection

Philips Koninck is widely regarded as one of the greatest painters of panoramic landscape in the Netherlands. Over the course of his career he developed a specific compositional type, characterized by a high point of view and a composition fairly evenly divided between earth and sky, with very few buildings or trees projecting above the horizon line. A winding road or river leads gently through the middle distance, eventually taking the spectator's gaze to the distant horizon.

The present drawing reveals Koninck at the height of his powers. With a remarkable economy of means, he creates a serene view at the mouth of a river. The broad bends of the river lead the viewer back to the just barely defined town in the distance. He uses no underdrawing to speak of -- no pen and ink at all, but just a few traces of red chalk along the tree line at the far left, the town left center and the projecting spit of land in the middleground. The Panoramic Landscape with a River Plain and Hills in the Distance (Sumowski 1515x) in the Getty Museum, and the Panorama with River and Village in the Middleground, in the British Museum (Sumowski 1518x) are among the few other watercolors conceived without a framework of pen and ink. In the present work, Koninck foresakes his usual greens and browns, using instead a palette of blues and grays for the sky and river, and warm tans and reddish browns for the land. Most of the sky is reserved for the warm-toned paper, which adds a hint of sunlight and brightens the scene.

Sumowski (loc.cit.) had initially dated this drawing to the late 1660s but has since revised his view slightly (in a letter of October 12, 2003), suggesting it was made around 1670. It can be compared with Dutch Lowlands with Windmill (Sumowski 1363) of 1671, formerly in the Heinemann collection (sold London, Christie's, 1 July 1997, lot 211), one of the very few dated landscape drawing by the artist, and also with the Getty Panoramic Landscape with a River Plain and Hills in the Distance.

Although Koninick was clearly influenced by Rembrandt, there is no evidence that he was a pupil. His landscape drawings also reflect the airy panoramas created by Hendrick Goltzius and the remarkable color prints of Hercules Seghers. Watercolor landscapes on this scale are extremely rare and were evidently intended to be regarded as finished works in their own right.