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Lot Essay
Paintings on copper are exceedingly rare within the oeuvre of Hendrick Avercamp and his circle. Clara J. Welcker, in her 1979 catalogue on Hendrick and his nephew, Barend, included twenty-three works on copper by or attributed to Hendrick, fifteen of which she knew only from sale records and a further one that she believed was incorrectly attributed to the artist. When an exhibition of Avercamp’s work was held in Amsterdam and Washington thirty years later, the situation remained much the same. In their entry on technical aspects of Avercamp’s work, Arie Wallert and Ige Verslype noted how ‘the number of known paintings on copper still accounts for only a tiny fraction of his total oeuvre’ and cited six of the seven pictures previously described by Welcker, excluding only the example stolen from Leipzig in 1919 (A. Wallert and I. Verslype, ‘Ice and Sky, Sky and Ice: Technical Aspects’, Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam and Washington, 2009, pp. 129 and 170, note 1). In recent years, at least three of the six known examples on copper – including a picture at the Musée Baron-Martin, Gray (inv. no. MNR 550), and the pair depicting Summer and Winter at the Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (inv. nos. NG.M.01373 and NG.M.01374) – have come to be regarded as works by a follower of Avercamp, though the attributions of each had already been questioned by Welcker (see nos. S 49.1 and S 68a and S 68b, ibid.).
The present pictures are unknown in the Avercamp literature, but the cast of characters can be found in a number of other works by Avercamp and his circle. The female figure in the central foreground reappears in a painting variously attributed to Avercamp himself and his follower Arent Arentsz., called Cabel, though without her male companion and with changes to the color of her dress (sold Christie’s, London, 12 December 2001, lot 30). Given the striking similarities in execution and treatment of the figures, the works may plausibly be by the same hand. The couple reappear together in several further works, including at left in a painting by the artist sold Christie’s, London, 11 April 2002, lot 528; at center in a painting dated 1620 in the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle and in the central middle ground of a winter landscape sold as lot 48 in these Rooms on 25 January 2002 that has variously been attributed to Hendrick, Barend and an artist in Hendrick’s circle. Immediately to the left in that last painting can be seen the same standing figure clad in red and viewed from the side who features in the leftmost panel here.
Various further figures can likewise be identified in paintings and preparatory drawings. A drawing, partly colored, for the horse-drawn sled in the left panel was sold at Dorotheum, Vienna, 4 April 2017, lot 113. The same sled with figures dressed in different colored clothing appears prominently at left in a painting today in the Kröller-Möller Museum, Otterloo (inv. no. 53-08). Similarly, a watercolor depicting three boys on skates and one with a kolf stick at the Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Weimar (inv. no. KK 4725), probably served as the reference for both the young skater seen from behind in the central panel and the crouching skater tying his laces in the right panel here. The former reappears in the central foreground of the afore-mentioned painting sold in these Rooms in 2002 and that sold in London in the same year. The latter is shown in similar fashion – though tying his female companion’s skate rather than his own – in the painting sold in London in 2001.
These three copper panels once formed part of a larger work that was cut down at some point in its history. In terms of figural scale and general mise en scène, in its original format the painting must have presented much like the largest of Avercamp’s known coppers, the magnificent Winter landscape with a frozen river and figures in the Harold Samuel Collection at Mansion House, London, of circa 1620. Much like that painting, a tall pole of a leading mark, which would have originally been surmounted by a barrel or basket, is included as a beacon to guide vessels into small or shallow harbors. The inclusion of gallows in the background of both paintings serves as a striking counterpoint to the light-hearted pastimes that dominate the painting’s foreground. The relatively low horizon line and large figural scale can likewise be compared with the aforementioned painting dated 1620 in Zwolle, though the use of lateral framing figures may suggest the present composition dates slightly earlier.
The present pictures are unknown in the Avercamp literature, but the cast of characters can be found in a number of other works by Avercamp and his circle. The female figure in the central foreground reappears in a painting variously attributed to Avercamp himself and his follower Arent Arentsz., called Cabel, though without her male companion and with changes to the color of her dress (sold Christie’s, London, 12 December 2001, lot 30). Given the striking similarities in execution and treatment of the figures, the works may plausibly be by the same hand. The couple reappear together in several further works, including at left in a painting by the artist sold Christie’s, London, 11 April 2002, lot 528; at center in a painting dated 1620 in the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle and in the central middle ground of a winter landscape sold as lot 48 in these Rooms on 25 January 2002 that has variously been attributed to Hendrick, Barend and an artist in Hendrick’s circle. Immediately to the left in that last painting can be seen the same standing figure clad in red and viewed from the side who features in the leftmost panel here.
Various further figures can likewise be identified in paintings and preparatory drawings. A drawing, partly colored, for the horse-drawn sled in the left panel was sold at Dorotheum, Vienna, 4 April 2017, lot 113. The same sled with figures dressed in different colored clothing appears prominently at left in a painting today in the Kröller-Möller Museum, Otterloo (inv. no. 53-08). Similarly, a watercolor depicting three boys on skates and one with a kolf stick at the Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Weimar (inv. no. KK 4725), probably served as the reference for both the young skater seen from behind in the central panel and the crouching skater tying his laces in the right panel here. The former reappears in the central foreground of the afore-mentioned painting sold in these Rooms in 2002 and that sold in London in the same year. The latter is shown in similar fashion – though tying his female companion’s skate rather than his own – in the painting sold in London in 2001.
These three copper panels once formed part of a larger work that was cut down at some point in its history. In terms of figural scale and general mise en scène, in its original format the painting must have presented much like the largest of Avercamp’s known coppers, the magnificent Winter landscape with a frozen river and figures in the Harold Samuel Collection at Mansion House, London, of circa 1620. Much like that painting, a tall pole of a leading mark, which would have originally been surmounted by a barrel or basket, is included as a beacon to guide vessels into small or shallow harbors. The inclusion of gallows in the background of both paintings serves as a striking counterpoint to the light-hearted pastimes that dominate the painting’s foreground. The relatively low horizon line and large figural scale can likewise be compared with the aforementioned painting dated 1620 in Zwolle, though the use of lateral framing figures may suggest the present composition dates slightly earlier.