Lot 44: Willem Gillisz. Kool (Haarlem 1608/9-1666)

Figures and boats on a beach with monogram 'SvR.' (lower left) oil on panel 153/4 x 19 5/8 in. (40 x 49.9 cm.) PROVENANCE Anon. Sale, Christie's, London 4 April 1986, lot 135. Anon. Sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 6 November 2001, lot 47. LITERATURE H.-U. Beck, Knstler um Jan van Goyen, Doornspijk, 1991, IV, p. 259, no. 710. NOTES Active in Haarlem, Kool was strongly influenced by the oeuvres of Van Goyen and Ruysdael, whilst also displaying stylistic affinities with Cornelis Beelt. The present picture is characteristic of his work: a beach scene with a shadowed foreground, lit in the middle ground by a patch of light, the staffage employed in groups to further the sense of distance.