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Lot Essay
One of the most prolific Dutch landscape artists of the seventeenth century, Jan van Goyen also produced some of the most varied and experimental pictures of his time. Rather neglected throughout the eighteenth century, van Goyen has since been considered one of the great precursors of nineteenth century plein-air painting, with an astounding facility to express the atmosphere and light of landscapes and seascapes depicted at different times of day and in different conditions.
In the present picture, van Goyen’s rapid brushwork effectively conveys the relationship between the surface and expanse of water, and the atmosphere created through the diffusion of early morning sunlight. From the dark pink in the overhanging clouds, reflected in paler tones on the water, to the soft yellow, brightening the sky towards the horizon and silhouetting the sails of the boats, to the almost transparent pale green forms of the buildings on the shore, van Goyen captures the watery transience of the landscape observed at this time of day.
The appearance of the rising sun is unique in van Goyen’s oeuvre, although he had previously explored the effects of moonlight on nocturnal landscapes in the early 1640s, no doubt inspired by Aert van der Neer’s work from around the same time. With the next generation of painters, such as Jacob van Ruisdael and the Italianates Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Asselijn, a tendency to depict natural phenomena against the light of the sun or the moon became more commonplace.
Van Goyen traversed the Netherlands making sketches in order to record such distinctively Dutch naturalistic effects, which he then used in the studio to create highly finished drawings and paintings. He produced a number of city views in the 1640s, including a picture of Dordrecht taken from the Merwede, sold in these Rooms, 3 July 2012, lot 9, also dated 1646. The present view would have been recognisable to contemporary viewers, with the silhouette of the church of Saint Bavo on the right, but it acts today as an ephemeral document of bygone Holland - the Harlemmermeer has long since been drained and Schiphol airport now occupies part of the site.
In the present picture, van Goyen’s rapid brushwork effectively conveys the relationship between the surface and expanse of water, and the atmosphere created through the diffusion of early morning sunlight. From the dark pink in the overhanging clouds, reflected in paler tones on the water, to the soft yellow, brightening the sky towards the horizon and silhouetting the sails of the boats, to the almost transparent pale green forms of the buildings on the shore, van Goyen captures the watery transience of the landscape observed at this time of day.
The appearance of the rising sun is unique in van Goyen’s oeuvre, although he had previously explored the effects of moonlight on nocturnal landscapes in the early 1640s, no doubt inspired by Aert van der Neer’s work from around the same time. With the next generation of painters, such as Jacob van Ruisdael and the Italianates Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Asselijn, a tendency to depict natural phenomena against the light of the sun or the moon became more commonplace.
Van Goyen traversed the Netherlands making sketches in order to record such distinctively Dutch naturalistic effects, which he then used in the studio to create highly finished drawings and paintings. He produced a number of city views in the 1640s, including a picture of Dordrecht taken from the Merwede, sold in these Rooms, 3 July 2012, lot 9, also dated 1646. The present view would have been recognisable to contemporary viewers, with the silhouette of the church of Saint Bavo on the right, but it acts today as an ephemeral document of bygone Holland - the Harlemmermeer has long since been drained and Schiphol airport now occupies part of the site.