Lot 138: THE PROPERTY OF A LADY CORNELIS BEELT ROTTERDAM 1640 - 1702 HAARLEM OR ROTTERDAM SKATERS ON A

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY CORNELIS BEELT ROTTERDAM 1640 - 1702 HAARLEM OR ROTTERDAM SKATERS ON A FROZEN LAKE AT THE EDGE OF A TOWN

bears signature and date lower centre right on a plank of wood: J. V Ostade f. 1653

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Comte Alfred de Balathier-Conigham, Château d'Ambronay, l'Ain, around 1870 ;
Thence by inheritance to his son-in-law, Comte Louis Bernard de Lauzière;
Thence by inheritance to his son-in-law, Comte François Carra de Vaux Saint-Cyr (1893-1972), who sold Château d'Ambronay to the Ambronay Town Council around 1960 and bought the Château de Saint-Béron in Savoy;
Thence by descent to the present owner.
CATALOGUE NOTE

It has been suggested that the town in the distance is that of Kampen, the view taken from the far side of the river Ijssel. The south-eastern corner of the city wall can be made out on the left and, to its right, the gothic Bovenkerk, dedicated to St. Nicholas, dominates the skyline. Beelt may simply have extended the scope of the Ijssel in the interest of composition.

The horse-drawn carriage moving across the ice towards the lower left of the composition is a motif often found in Beelt's oeuvre (see, for example, the signed Winter landscape reproduced in W. Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the 17th Century, Munich 1969, vol. I, fig. 68). A winter landscape of similar composition, but on a far smaller scale was sold in these Rooms, 9 July 1998, lot 204.

98.6 by 146.1 cm.; 38 7/8 by 57 1/2 in.