Jan Both DPG8, DPG12, DPG15
DPG8 – Italian Landscape
c. 1642–52; canvas, 54 x 64.8 cm
Signed or inscribed on rock, lower centre right: JB (in monogram)
PROVENANCE
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 26, no. 260 (‘Small Drawing Room contd / no. 13, Do [i.e. Landscape] – Do [i.e. figures] asses(?), & water – C[anvas]. Do [i.e. Both]’; 3' x 3'4").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817;1 Haydon 1817;2 Cat. 1820?;3 Hazlitt 1824, p. 33, no. 92;4 Patmore 1824a, pp. 174–7;5 Patmore 1824b, pp. 58–9, no. 184 or 192;6 Cat. 1830, no. 30 (Both); Smith 1829–42, vi (1835), p. 205. under no. 91 (Jan and Andries Both);7 Jameson 1842, ii, pp. 447–8, no. 30; Hazlitt 1843, p. 26, no. 30 (Both);8 Denning 1858, no. 30 (Both); Denning 1859, no. 30 (Jan and Andries Both);9 Sparkes 1876, pp. 14–15, no. 30 (may be Smith no. 113); Richter & Sparkes 1880, pp. 16–17, no. 30 (Jan Both; Smith no. 113);10 Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 3, no. 8 (J. and A. Both); HdG, ix, 1926, p. 464, no. 141 (Jan Both); Cook 1914, pp. 7–8, no. 8 (Jan Both); Cook 1926, pp. 7–8, no. 8; Cat. 1953, p. 11, no. 8; Burke 1976, pp. 218–19, no. 60 (probably dates from his Roman years);11 Murray 1980a, p. 299 (Both); Beresford 1998, p. 45 (attributed to Both); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 38, 41 (Both); RKD no. 284648: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/284648 (June 12, 2017).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Medium plain-weave linen canvas, glue-lined onto similar. The canvas has been prepared with a thick grey ground, composed of several layers. The paint surface is very worn, especially in the sky, trees and landscape. The signature is no longer present. Previous recorded treatment: 1867, repaired, ‘revived’, revarnished and frame regilded; 1911, cleaned, Holder; 1952, conserved, Dr Hell.
DPG8
Jan Both
Italian landscape, c. 1642-1652
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG8
RELATED WORKS
1) Copy? Version? of DPG8: Jan Both, Italian Landscape, canvas, 49 x 64.8 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (anonymous sale (part Edward James, Monkton House, West Dean), Christie’s, 11 December 1986, lot 110; Van Marle and Bignell, The Hague, 21 May 1963, lot 73, as F. de Moucheron; Major O. M. Leigh collection, Liverpool).12
2) Jan Both, Man washing his Feet, panel, 45.5 x 66 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (in the Colonel Gray collection).13
3) Copy: Ralph Cockburn after DPG8, Italian Landscape (as Karel du Jardin), c. 1816–20, aquatint, 172 x 232 mm (Cockburn 1830, no. 44), DPG [1].14
1
Ralph Cockburn after Jan Both
Italian landscape, 1816-1820
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery
The scene appears to be set on a late summer afternoon in an idealized, elegiac Roman Campagna. Because of the painting’s poor condition there has been doubt surrounding its authorship. The attribution to Both was accepted by Burke, who dates it during the artist’s Roman years between 1636 and 1642. The attribution seems reasonable, particularly given the characteristic handling of the tree and Both’s usual method of using the silhouette of trees and landscape against a glowing sky to create a strong diagonal that stretches from corner to corner of the canvas. However, it is perhaps safer to think that it was painted in the decade after his return to Utrecht, as he painted most of his pictures during that period. While the way the light unifies the composition clearly shows the influence of Claude, Both favours a greater naturalism, which would in turn influence artists including Cuyp, Salomon van Ruysdael and Jacob van Ruisdael.
According to Smith and Denning there was another version of this Both composition in the collection of a Colonel Gray (Related works, no. 2); it is possible that that was Related works, no. 1, which was more recently on the art market.
DPG12 – Banks of a Brook
c. 1641–5; canvas, 55.2 x 68.9 cm
PROVENANCE
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 26, no. 259 (‘Small Drawing Room contd / no. 12, Landscape & figures – C[anvas]. Both’; 3' x 3'4").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817;15 Haydon 1817;16 Cat. 1820;17 Patmore 1824a, pp. 174–7, no. 184;18 Patmore 1824b, pp. 58–9, no. 184 or 192;19 Cat. 1830, p. 4, no. 41 (Jan and Andries Both); Smith 1829–42, vi (1835), p. 213, no. 113 (no price given);20 Jameson 1842, ii, p. 449, no. 41 (‘A picture utterly spoiled’); Ruskin 1843, pt ii, sec. iv, ch. iv (Of the Foreground), p. 315;21 Denning 1858, no. 41 (Both); Denning 1859, no. 41 (Jan and Andries Both); Sparkes 1876, p. 15, no. 41 (Both); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 17, no. 41 (Jan Both; ‘In this picture the figures have not been painted by Andries Both’); Richter & Sparkes 1892, p. 4, no 12; Richter & Sparkes 1905, p. 4, no. 12; Cook 1914, p. 10, no. 12; HdG, ix, 1926, p. 487, no. 234; Cook 1926, p. 9, no. 12; Cat. 1953, p. 12; Burke 1976, pp. 219–20, no. 62, fig. 56 (missing) (a copy, c. 1641–5, possibly by Both, of the painting at Antwerp); Murray 1980a, p. 30 (Both); Murray 1980b, p. 8; Beresford 1998, p. 46 (attributed to Both); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 40–41 (most probably by Both); RKD, no. 225935: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/225935 (June 2, 2017).
EXHIBITION
Williamsburg/Fresno/Pittsburgh/Oklahoma City 2008–10, pp. 38–9, no. 5 (I. A. C. Dejardin; attributed to Jan Both).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Medium plain-weave canvas. Grey ground. Lined onto canvas; no original tacking margins remain. There is an old tear in and above the stream and an old hole in the top right-hand corner. Considerable wear to the surface has caused the figures on the bank of the lake almost to disappear, and the detail in the trees has been significantly abraded. Previous recorded treatment: 1867, ‘revived’, varnished and frame regilded; 1911, cleaned, Holder; 1996, glue paste lined, cleaned and retouched, S. Plender.
RELATED WORKS
1) Prime version: Jan Both, Banks of a Brook, canvas, 56 x 70 cm. KMSKA, Antwerp, 26 [2].22
2) Jan Both, Carts stuck in a Southern Landscape, signed Both, canvas, 67 x 79.5 cm. Staatliches Museum, Schwerin, G 109 [3].23
An Italianate landscape. The scene is dominated by the trees along the riverbank, illuminated by the morning sun. In the distance are a lake and a large hill.
This is a version, most probably by Both himself, of his painting in Antwerp (Related works, no. 1) [2], which is dated by Burke c. 1641–5. It has suffered from overcleaning, as Smith, Jameson and Denning noted, probably some time before the 19th century. The same landscape with different staffage (horsemen instead of shepherds) appears in a variant by Both in Schwerin (Related works, no. 2) [3].
DPG12
(after?) Jan Both
Southern landscape with travellers near a brook, c. 1640-1645
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG12
2
Jan Both
Southern landscape with travellers on a flooded track, c. 1641
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, inv./cat.nr. 26
3
Jan Both
Italianate landscape with travellers, c. 1641-1652
Schwerin, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv./cat.nr. G 109
DPG15 – Road by the Edge of a Lake
c. 1642–52; oak panel, 44.1 x 39.4 cm
PROVENANCE
?Antoine Poullain; his sale, Paris, 15 March 1780 (Lugt 3106), lot 72;24 ?Evening Mail inventory, 1790–91 (Little Parlour: ‘Both – A Landscape, with figures’); ?List of Pictures to be sold, early 1790s, no. 306 (Small Parlour: ‘Both – a Landscape & figures’), 36 gns; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 1, no. 4 (‘Small parlour / no. 4, Landscape: with figures passing up a road – Pan[el] Both’; 2'6" x 2'3").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817;25 Haydon 1817;26 Cat. 1820?;27 Patmore 1824a, pp. 174–7;28 Patmore 1824b, pp. 58–9, no. 184 or 192;29 Cat. 1830, p. 10, no. 205 (Both); Smith 1829–42, vi (1835), p. 214, no. 115 (Jan and Andries Both);30 Jameson 1842, ii, p. 476, no. 205; Denning 1858, no. 205 (Jan and Andries Both; pair with no. 199 [=DPG10]);31 not in Denning 1859; Blanc 1861, ii, n.p. (s.v. Frédéric Moucheron), p. 3 (fig. Les Muletiers) (after Barns); Sparkes 1876, p. 16, no. 205 (Both; ‘A beautifully-painted brilliant picture’); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 17, no. 205 (Jan Both; in the Poullain collection); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 4, no. 15 (J. and A. Both); Cook 1914, p. 11, no. 15 (Jan Both);32 HdG, ix, 1926, pp. 464–5, no. 142 (Jan Both); Cook 1926, pp. 10–11, no. 15; Cat. 1953, p. 12, no. 15; Burke 1976, p. 220, no. 63 (‘in fair condition. From Both’s years in Rome’ (i.e. c. 1638–42); fig. 58; [missing]); Murray 1980a, p. 30; Murray 1980b, p. 8; Powell 1998, p. 47 (fig. 16); Beresford 1998, p. 44; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 37–8, 41 (c. 1638–42); RKD no. 207303: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/207303 (June 2, 2017).
EXHIBITIONS
Houston/Louisville 1999–2000, pp. 172–3, no. 57 (D. Shawe-Taylor); Williamsburg/Fresno/Pittsburgh/Oklahoma City 2008–10, pp. 40–41, no. 6 (I. A. C. Dejardin; 1638–41).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Two-member oak panel, joined horizontally. The panel has a wooden cradle on the reverse. The panel has been reduced a little on the right and probably left edges. There is some abrasion of the paint surface, particularly in the centre of the panel at the join. Some dark paint underdrawing is now visible in the trees and clouds due to an increase in transparency of the paint layers. There is some localized blanching in the left foreground, building and middle distance. The foliage has faded which probably indicates the loss or discolouration of a glaze containing a fugitive yellow pigment. Previous recorded treatment: 1866, ‘revived’, varnished and frame re-gilded; 1952–3, cleaned and retouched, Dr Hell; 1997, cradle, bars thinned and replaced, T. Reeve; cleaned and restored, S. Plender.
RELATED WORKS
1) Barns after DPG15, Road by the Edge of a Lake, engraving (in reverse), design 177 x 142 mm, plate 214 x 159 mm. Inscribed in the centre ‘Du Cabinet de Mr. Poullain’; lower left ‘J. Both et Moucheron’; lower right ‘Barns, sc.’ Basan 1781, p. 12, pl. 62 [4].33
2) Copy: Ralph Cockburn after DPG15, A Landscape: Morning, c. 1816–20, aquatint, 230 x 179 mm (Cockburn 1830, no. 25), DPG [5].34
A Northern landscape, bathed in Southern light. Burke suggested that the painting dated from Both’s period in Rome between c. 1638 and 1642, but this is uncertain: that it is on oak panel would suggest that it was painted in Northern Europe, thus in 1642 or after. There is a French 18th-century engraving corresponding to the picture, in reverse (Related works, no. 1) [4], where it is ascribed to Jan Both and Frédéric Moucheron, and said to be in the Poullain collection. Confusingly, the accompanying text and that of the Poullain sale describe a different painting, said to be a collaboration between Moucheron and Adriaen van de Velde.35
Denning thought it formed a pair with DPG10. The two may have been placed thus in the gallery, but it was not the intention of the artist.
DPG15
Jan Both
Road by the Edge of a Lake, c. 1643-1652
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG15
4
Barns after Jan Both
Road by the Edge of a Lake
The Hague, RKD – Nederlands Institute for Art History (Collection Old Netherlandish Art), inv./cat.nr. BD/0676 - ONS/Original Prints (by inventor)
5
Ralph Cockburn after Jan Both
Landscape: morning, 1816-1820
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery
Notes
1 There are three descriptions in Cat. 1817, and it is not clear which refers to DPG8: p. 8, no. 119 (‘SECOND ROOM – West Side; A Landscape, with Figures; Both’); p. 8, no. 133 (‘SECOND ROOM – West Side; A Landscape, with Figures; Both’); p. 11, no. 193 (‘CENTRE ROOM – West Side; A Landscape; Both’). All could also refer to DPG12 and DPG15.
2 Any one of three works described in Haydon 1817 could be DPG8: p. 380, no. 119 (‘BOTH. Landscape with Figures’); p. 382, no. 133 (‘BOTH. Landscape with Figures’); and p. 390, no. 193 (‘BOTH. Landscape with Figures’). Two could be DPG12 and DPG15.
3 As with Cat. 1817, it is unclear which of three descriptions in Cat. 1820 refers to DPG8: p. 8, no. 119 (‘Landscape with Figures’); p. 8, no. 133 (‘Landscape with Figures’); and p. 11, no. 193 (‘Landscape’). Again, these descriptions could also refer to DPG12 and DPG15.
4 ‘Landscape with Cattle and Figures, is by Both, who is, we confess, no great favourite of ours. We do not like his straggling branches of trees without masses of foliage, continually running up into the sky, merely to let in the landscape beyond.’
5 ‘Next to Cuyp […] commend me to John Both, who did for Italian scenery almost what Cuyp had done for Flemish; with this difference that Both found the beauty created to his hands, while Cuyp half created it himself. In Both we have a remarkable and interesting example of the effects resulting from the curious truth and industry of a Dutch eye and hand, when employing themselves on the lovely scenery and beneath the delicious skies of Italy. […] The real fault of Both, and his only fault, is one which probably arose from his Dutch education, acting on what I must venture to call his Dutch nature. He is too nice and literal in his execution […] This Gallery is not near so rich in the works of this, upon the whole, delightful master, as in those of the preceding one [Cuyp]; but there are several very charming specimens. No. 184 [=DPG10], a sunset, is, I think, the best.’
6 Patmore 1824b gives descriptions of two pictures by Both: his nos 184, which is DPG10, and 192, which could be DPG12 or DPG15. ‘No. 184. Both. An exquisite little landscape – a sunset – steeped all over in lighted air. Both never forgot the Italian skies that he had luxuriated under in the early part of his professional life; and be the scene that he depicts what it may, he seems to look at it through a medium that tinges it with the associations which he acquired at that period.’ ‘No. 192. Both. Equal, if not superior in beauty to the preceding. Nothing can be more natural than the general effect; and yet there is an elegant and poetical air about it, which seems to point it out as a scene fit for the haunt of purer and brighter essences than those which are allied to the human mould.’
7 ‘A picture corresponding with the preceding (size 1 ft. 8 in. by 2 ft. 1 in. – C[anvas]. is in the Dulwich Gallery.’
8 See note 4 above.
9 ‘Landscape and Figures. This picture is nearly a repetition of one formerly in the possession of Colonel Gray mentioned in Smith’s Catal: Rais: No: 91, which however is not quite the same in size, being 2 ft 2 ins by 1 ft 6. On Canvas – 2 ft. 1 inc: in W by 1 ft: 8 inc: in H.’
10 ‘The following landscapes (No. 30 [DPG8], 41 [DPG12], 199 [DPG10] and 205 [DPG15]) by Both are evidently painted under the influence of Claude le Lorrain. They are, like No. 36 [DPG208], very good specimens of the painter’s skill. Nos. 199 [DPG10] and 205 [DPG15] represent landscapes in evening light, immediately after sunset. They are particularly conspicuous by the masterly treatment of broad masses of light.’ The sentence on p. 17 (‘The following pictures are painted in the style of Rubens by his scholars or imitators’), preceding the entries for Nos 30 (DPG8), 41 (DPG12), 199 (DPG10) and 205 (DPG15), seems to be a printer’s error.
11 ‘In extremely poor condition, severely damaged by abrasion […] signature, which is no longer visible. The few remaining areas of clear detail reveal Both’s hand, as does the composition, and the whole probably dates from his Roman years. There is evidence of intense golden lighting to suggest this dating.’
12 HdG, ix, 1926, p. 499, no. 283: canvas, 48.3 x 64.8 cm; exh. RA 1890, no. 99 (from the William James collection, London).
13 HdG, ix, 1926, p. 466, no. 148; Smith 1829–42, vi (1835), no. 91 records a variant of DPG8: ‘1 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 2 in. P[anel]’ in the collection of Colonel Gray (Related works, no. 2). ‘A picture corresponding with the preceding (size 1 ft. 8 in. by 2 ft. 1 in. – [C[anvas].) is in the Dulwich Gallery.’
14 RKD, no. 284645: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/284645 (June 12, 2017).
15 There are three descriptions in Cat. 1817, any one of which could be DPG12: see note 1 above.
16 Similarly, in Haydon 1817 there are three descriptions: see note 2 above.
17 In Cat. 1820 there are again three descriptions: see note 3 above.
18 See note 5 above.
19 See note 6 above.
20 ‘This picture has lost much of its original beauty, by injudicious cleaning.’
21 ‘§17. The foreground of Both. It is an easier matter, however, to point out the fallacy of pieces of ground undistinguished by vegetation, such as Both’s foreground, in No. 41 of the Dulwich Gallery [DPG12]. If this were meant for rock, it would come under the same category with Salvator’s above mentioned [on p. 309, DPG457, manner of Rosa] but its violent brown colour seems to mark it for earth; and I believe no eye can help feeling that the series of peaks with hollow curves between them which emerge from the grass in the centre, are such as could not support themselves for ten minutes against an April shower. […] Hence nature’s ground never by any chance assumes such forms as those of Both, and if – which it would be most difficult to do – a piece of even the toughest clay were artificially reduced to them; with the first noon-day sun, or first summer shower, she would have it all her own way again.’ According to Cook & Wedderburn (1903/2009, iii, p. 482 (note)) the passages cited above were inserted in the first and second editions between §13 and §14.
22 RKD, no. 257895: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/257895 (June 3, 2017); HdG, ix, 1926, p. 456, no. 115; Vandamme 1988, p. 51.
23 RKD, no. 269465: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/269465 (June 3, 2017); Wandschneider 2008, p. 158, 200, ill.; Burke 1976, p. 245, no. 107, fig. 93: the latest of three versions by Both, with earlier paintings in Antwerp (Related works, no. 1) and DPG12; HdG, ix, 1926, pp. 441–2, no. 68; Mansfeld 1951, p. 59, no. 45, fig. xxxii; see photo in DPG12 file.
24 The description of lot 72, ascribed to Frédéric Moucheron and Adriaen van de Velde, does not correspond to DPG15 in content or format: Antoine Poullain, his sale, Paris, 15–21 March 1780 (Lugt 3106), 15 March, lot 72: Un paysage où Adrien van den Velde a peint une femme montée sur un cheval, accompagnée d’un homme à pied à qui elle parle; devant eux on voit des vaches & des moutons. Une touche légère & spirituelle & un effet piquant distinguent ce charmant tableau. Hauteur 9 pouces 6 lignes. Largeur 12 pouces B[ois] (A landscape where Adriaen van de Velde painted a woman mounted on a horse, accompanied by a man on foot to whom she talks; in front of them one sees cows and sheep. A light and witty touch and a piquant effect characterize this charming picture […]); bt Paillet for 800 frs.
25 Any one of three descriptions in Cat. 1817 could be DPG15: see note 1 above.
26 Similarly, there are three descriptions in Haydon, among which DPG15 cannot be distinguished: see note 2 above.
27 The same applies to the three descriptions in Cat. 1820: see note 3 above.
28 See note 5 above.
29 See note 6 above.
30 ‘Both this and the preceding [no. 114 = DPG10), are very indifferent examples of the master […] Worth 80 gs.’
31 ‘The specimens of these masters [sic] in this Gallery are not first rate.’ Although Denning only mentions ‘Both’ as the artist, the plural here probably means Denning considered that these pictures were by the two Both brothers.
32 ‘A fine example of the golden effects in which Both excelled.’
33 RKD, no. 207305: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/207305 (June 4, 2017); Atwater 1989, ii, p. 564, no. 192. Barns seems to have been working in Paris in the 1780s; Blanc 1861, ii (s.v. Frédéric Moucheron), p. 3 (fig., Les Muletiers; after Barns).
34 RKD, no. 284646: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/284646 (June 12, 2017).
35 See note 24.