Aelbert Cuyp DPG60, DPG348
DPG60 – A River Landscape
c. 1640; oak panel, 16 x 36.8 cm
Signed lower right: A cuÿp
PROVENANCE
?Insurance 1804, no. 33 (‘Cuyp – A small Landscape’), £250; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 9, no. 68 (‘Library Pictures by Cuyp / no. 5, Landscape – Cattle – barge – P[anel]’, [Cuyp]; 1'5" x 1'9").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 6, no. 79 (‘FIRST ROOM – East Side; A Landscape and Figures; Cuyp’); Haydon 1817, p. 376, no. 79;1 Cat. 1820, p. 6, no. 79; Patmore 1824b, p. 16, no. 58;2 Cat. 1830, p. 6, no. 76; Jameson 1842, ii, p. 454, no. 76;3 Denning 1858 and 1859, no. 76 (painted on by Sir F. Bourgeois);4 Sparkes 1876, p. 45, no. 76; Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 43, no. 76;5 Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 14, no. 60; HdG, ii, 1908, p. 197, no. 695 (Engl. edn 1909, p. 208); Cook 1914, p. 35, no. 60;6 Cook 1926, p. 34, no. 60; Cat. 1953, p. 17; Van Gelder & Jost 1972, p. 236, note 4; Murray 1980a, p. 299; Waterfield 1989, pp. 45–6 (fig. 10); Chong 1992, n.p., no. 29; Chong 1993, p. 285, no. 29; Beresford 1998, pp. 80–81; Kloek 2001, pp. 230, 281, under no. 62; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 56, 57, 66; RKD, no. 225942: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/225942 (Dec. 9, 2017).
EXHIBITIONS
London 1999b (ill.; no cat. no.; c. 1640); Williamsburg/Fresno/Pittsburgh/Oklahoma City 2008–10, pp. 54–5, no. 13 (I. A. C. Dejardin).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Thin oak panel. Reddish buff ground. Paint layers applied thinly with occasional areas of sharp impasto. The panel has a very slight convex warp. Previous to its 1998 restoration the original panel had been set into a larger panel which significantly extended the composition at the top and bottom of the original painting; the later additions were removed in 1998, leaving the original panel in its current state, with thin edges of non-original panel along the bottom left to protect its uneven edges. It is now set into a wooden panel tray for support. The ground shows through in some areas of abrasion in the sky. This work formerly had the remnants of a group of cattle in the foreground centre left. Analysis showed these were post-17th-century additions and they were removed in 1998. Previous recorded treatment: late 18th/early 19th century, repainted (presumably the cattle were added at this point), Sir Francis Bourgeois; 1948–68 and 1970–72, partially cleaned, Dr Hell; 1998, technical analysis L. Sheldon; later panel additions removed, A. Reeve; cleaned and restored, S. Plender.
DPG60
Aelbert Cuyp
River landscape with two anglers, c. 1640
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG60
1
Aelbert Cuyp
Moored rowing boats on a River, a Church in the Distance, c. 1640
Private collection
2
Aelbert Cuyp
View of the (Old) Maas near Dordrecht, c. 1644-1645
Los Angeles (California), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, inv./cat.nr. 50.43
3
Aelbert Cuyp
View of Dordrecht, dated 1647
Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, inv./cat.nr. 1001
4
Abraham van Strij (I) after Aelbert Cuyp
View of the Riedijkse Poort in Dordrecht
Haarlem, Teylers Museum, inv./cat.nr. P* 40
5
Aert Schouman after Aelbert Cuyp
View of the River near Dordrecht, 1759 (dated)
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, inv./cat.nr. DM/983/T 836
RELATED WORKS
1) Preparatory drawing: Aelbert Cuyp, View of a River with Boats, black chalk, wash in colours, opaque white in the sky, 141 x 194 mm. Private collection, The Netherlands (A. Schwarz collection, Amsterdam, in 1968) [1].7
2a.I) Aelbert Cuyp, View of the (Old) Maas near Dordrecht, c. 1644–5 or 1647, panel, 49.5 x 76.2 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, Donated by Mildred Browning Green and Judge Lucius Peyton Green, 50.43; Chong 30 [2].
2a.II) Aelbert Cuyp, View of Dordrecht, 1647, 51.4 x 86.1 cm. Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, 1001; Chong 31 [3].8
2b) Copy of no. 2a.I: Abraham van Strij I, View on the Riedijkse Poort at Dordrecht, black chalk, 211 x 453 mm. Teylers Museum, Haarlem, P*40 [4].9
2c) Copy of 2a.I and 2a.II: Aert Schouman, View of the River near Dordrecht, A.Schouman.del./1759 and A. Cuyp.Pinx.1647, watercolour, 152 x 293 mm. Dordrechts Museum, DM/983/T 836 [5].10
3) Aelbert Cuyp, A River Scene with Distant Windmills, panel, 35.6 x 52.4 cm. NG, London, NG2545; Chong 22 [6].11
4) Copy (cows still visible): Ralph Cockburn, Landscape, with Cattle, c. 1816–20, aquatint, 130 x 179 mm (Cockburn 1830, no. 32). DPG [7].12
An early work, in the style of Jan van Goyen, painted around 1640. It shows two rowing boats on the shore, and one on the water in front of the church tower. On the left, a yacht with few details, very sketchy.13 It was much repainted over the years. Until the late 1990s traces of a group of three cows could be seen in the middle of the foreground, and the panel had been enlarged with two strips added at the top and bottom, of 8.9 and 1.8 cm respectively. In that state the picture had been reproduced by Ralph Cockburn at the beginning of the 19th century (Related works, no. 4) [7]. The cows had been partly removed by the conservator Dr Hell some time after 1945 (1948–68 and 1970–72), and analysis of the area by the National Gallery in 1996 found traces of Prussian blue, proving that they could not have been added before the late 18th century (although Chong believed them to be original). According to Denning, Bourgeois was responsible for these additions [8]; as Professor J. G. van Gelder and Ingrid Jost have pointed out, Bourgeois had based them on the cattle in a view of the Old Maas near Dordrecht, the left half of a painting by Cuyp (Related works, no. 2a.I) [2] of which half an 18th-century copy exists, by Abraham van Strij I, that is more or less faithful (Related works, no. 2b) [4]. In 1759 Aert Schouman made a drawing (Related works, no. 2c) [5] after the supposed original complete picture (Related works, nos 2a.I and 2a.II) [2-3].
A surviving preparatory drawing does not include cows (Related works, no. 1) [1]. The additional strips, probably also added by Bourgeois, were removed in 1998, technical analysis having revealed that they were post-17th century; they are now in store at Dulwich. The composition in its present condition, probably more or less original, is close to A River Scene with Distant Windmills, although that has a higher sky (Related works, no. 3) [6].
The provenance of the painting is difficult to trace. It was probably acquired by Desenfans or Bourgeois in the late 18th century on the London art market.
6
Aelbert Cuyp
River Scene with Distant Windmills, c. 1640-1642
London (England), National Gallery (London), inv./cat.nr. NG2545
7
Ralph Cockburn after Aelbert Cuyp
Landscape, with Cattle, 1816-1820
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery
8
A River Landscape prior to conservation
DPG348 –Landscape with Cattle and Figures
c. 1640–41; oak panel, 37.5 x 57.5 cm
Signed, lower right: A cúÿp
PROVENANCE
?Desenfans sale, Skinner and Dyke, 18 March 1802 (Lugt 6380), lot 158,14 £110.5; bt Elliott (bt in), (handwritten note on RKD copy of catalogue: ‘2¼ [x] 1½ ft. P[anel] fine’); ?Insurance 1804, no. 31 (‘Cuyp – A Landscape and Cattle’), £100; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; 1813, p. 10, no. 75 (‘Library – Cuyp’s / no. 12, A Landscape with Cattle & figures – P[anel] Do. [i.e. Cuyp]’; 2'2" x 2'9").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 4, no. 16 (‘FIRST ROOM – South Side; A Landscape, with Sheep and Figures; Cuyp’); Haydon 1817, p. 371, no. 16;15 Cat. 1820, p. 4, no. 16; Patmore 1824b, p. 18, no. 26;16 Cat. 1830, p. 10, no. 192 (after Cuyp); Smith, v, 1834, p. 306, no. 77;17 Jameson 1842, ii, p. 473, no. 192; not in Leslie 1855, pp. 250–51?;18 Denning 1858, no. 192 (after Cuyp, and ‘Not by Cuyp. S.P.D.’); Denning 1859, no. 192 (after Cuyp); Sparkes 1876, p. 48, no. 192 (ascribed to Cuyp, ‘feeble grey sky’); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 43, no. 192 (first identification of the painting as an early work by Cuyp; ‘It somewhat recalls the manner of van Goijen.’);19 Havard & Sparkes 1885 (‘first-rate example of this painter’); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 96, no. 348; HdG, ii, 1908, p. 75, no. 239 (Desenfans sale, 1802), and p. 198, no. 697 (Engl. edn 1909, p. 78 and p. 208); Cook 1914, pp. 208–9, no. 348; Cook 1926, pp. 194–5; Reiss 1953a, p. 34, no. 358 (c. 1640–42); Reiss 1953b, p. 46 (idem); Cat. 1953, p. 17; Paintings 1954, pp. 12, [59]; Stechow 1960, p. 87; Reiss 1975, p. 43, no. 15 (c. 1641); Somerville 1975, pp. 32 (fig. 1), 33; Murray 1980a, pp. 48–9 (very early work, perhaps c. 1640);20 Murray 1980b, p. 12; Waterfield 1988, p. 34 (fig.); Chong 1992, no. 12 (paintings influenced by Jan van Goyen); Sutton 1992, p. 56 (note 6), under no. 16; Chong 1993, pp. 273–4 , no. 12; Lindemann 1995, p. 14 (fig. 6); Beresford 1998, pp. 82–3;21 Shawe-Taylor 2000, p. 62; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 58, 66; RKD, no. 225946: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/225946 (July 19, 2018).
EXHIBITIONS
London/Leeds 1947–53, n.p., no. 8; London 1952–3, p. 70, no. 358; London 1973, n.p., no. 1 (S. Reiss); Washington/London/Amsterdam 2001–2, pp. 92–3, and pp. 186–7, no. 2 (A. Rüger; c. 1640); Williamsburg/Fresno/Pittsburgh/Oklahoma 2008–10, pp. 62–3, no. 17 (I. A. C. Dejardin).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Two-member oak panel with horizontal grain and bevelled edges. There is some sharp, high impasto in the landscape and figures, but the goats and cows are more smoothly painted. There is a horizontal split above the lower right corner and two other cracks below the sheep in the foreground. Worm holes in the lower panel member have weakened the panel and caused some cracks. The join, cracks and holes in the reverse of the panel have been repaired. The paint surface is generally in good condition but the sky is slightly abraded. Previous recorded treatment: 1864, cleaned, Mr Merritt of Langham Place; 2000, frame conserved, B. Pearce; 2004, panel repaired, paint secured, cleaned and restored, S. Plender.
RELATED WORKS
1) Jacob and Aelbert Cuyp, Portrait of a Family in a Landscape, signed and dated [JG].cuijp.Fecit./ Ao. 1641, canvas, 155 x 245 cm. Israel Museum, Jerusalem, B65.04.0166; Chong 17 [9].22
2) Reinier van Persijn after Jacob Cuyp, Two Goats, engraving, 130 x 194 mm (no. 13 of Claes Jansz. Visscher’s Diversa Animalia Quadrupedia, 1641). RPK, RM, Amsterdam, RP-P-1889-A-15090 [10].23
3) (with two cows) Aelbert Cuyp, Road through Dunes, signed twice, panel, 49 x 73 cm. Formerly Kaiser Friedrich-Museum, Berlin, 861G, destroyed in 1945; Chong 11.24
4) Aelbert Cuyp, Panoramic Landscape with Shepherds, Sheep and a Town (Beverwijk?) in the Distance, c. 1641–4, panel, 38 x 54.7 cm. Harold Samuel Collection, London; Chong 19.25
5) (goat in reverse) Aelbert Cuyp, Orpheus charming the Animals, c. 1639–40, canvas, 113 x 167 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, De Mol-van Otterloo Collection; smaller version of Chong 71 [11].26
6) Copy: Ralph Cockburn, Landscape, with Cattle, c. 1816–20, aquatint, 127 x 179 mm (Cockburn 1830, no. 33). DPG [12].27
An early work, executed under the influence of the tonal realist painting of Jan van Goyen, Salomon van Ruysdael and Herman Saftleven II. It most markedly recalls the work of Van Goyen, although Cuyp’s light is brighter and has greater contrast. The thick impasto and light key are particularly noteworthy. It was probably executed c. 1640–41. Details of the landscape background recur in a portrait group by Jacob and Aelbert Cuyp that is dated 1641 (Related works, no. 1) [9] and Reiss also noted that the goat in profile (the second from left) derives from no. 13 of the drawings made by Aelbert’s father Jacob Cuyp and engraved for Diversa Animalia Quadrupedia published by Claes Jansz. Visscher (c. 1587–1652) in the same year (Related works, no. 2) [10]. On stylistic grounds, however, it is unlikely that Landscape with Cattle and Figures is a collaboration between father and son.28 Chong has observed that two of the cows are repetitions of those seen in Cuyp’s Road through Dunes (Related works, no. 3). Another early Cuyp is in the Samuel Collection, London (Related works, no. 4).The same goat (second from the left) is also depicted in the early Orpheus charming the Animals (Related works, no. 5) [11].
There is some doubt as to whether Landscape with Cattle and Figures is the work described in the catalogue of Noel Desenfans’ 1802 sale. While many details match, the text there has the goats on the right and the tree on the left. However, at the time the descriptions were reversed: while we now describe pictures from the standpoint of the viewer, in the 19th century they did it the other way round. Sparkes, in his 1876 catalogue of the Dulwich collection, referred to its ‘feeble grey sky’, and thought the picture was not by Cuyp himself, a view which seems incredible. Sense was restored in the next catalogue, amended by Richter (1880), where it is called ‘a particularly important work of the master’.
DPG347
Aelbert Cuyp
Landscape with cattle and figures, c. 1640-1641
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG348
9
and Aelbert Cuyp Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp
Portrait of a Family in a Landscape, dated 1641
Jeruzalem (city, Israel), The Israel Museum, inv./cat.nr. B65.04.0166
10
Reinier van Persijn after Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp
Hilly Landscape with two goats, dated 1641
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-1889-A-15090
11
Aelbert Cuyp
Orpheus playing for the animals, c. 1640
Boston (Massachusetts), Museum of Fine Arts Boston
12
Ralph Cockburn after Aelbert Cuyp
Landscape, with Cattle, 1816-1820
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery
Notes
1 ‘Albert Cuyp. Landscape with Cattle and Figures. An exquisite little picture; indeed the Collection is rich in fine works of this excellent master.’
2 ‘This is in a still different class, and owes its effect, in a great measure, to the contrasts it offers, rather than to the unity and blending together of the different parts. […] But though the general effect thus produced is different from that of some others, – being more lively, various, and animating, – it is yet equally consistent with Nature, and therefore equally true.’
3 ‘A small picture. About 10 in. by 13 in.’
4 Denning 1858 says of both ‘(after) Cuyp’ and ‘Perhaps this was by the father Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp’. Denning 1859 says of both ‘Ascribed to Albert Cuyp’ and ‘may be by the Elder Cuyp’. In both cases he says that Bourgeois had painted on it.
5 ‘An early work, recalling the style of van Goijen; successful in the colouring of the sky.’
6 ‘Mr. Denning recorded that the picture had been painted on by Sir Francis Bourgeois.’
7 RKD, no. 290665: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290665 (Sept. 11, 2018); Kloek 2001, pp. 230, 281, no. 62; Niemeijer 1968, pp. 14–15, no. 31, fig. 9. A drawing by Cuyp of a similar vast river landscape is in Weimar: Schlossmuseum KK 4884. Van den Boogert 1999a, pp. 50–51 (L. van Oosterzee), see RKD, no. 190412: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/190412 (July 19, 2020).
8 14 Related works, no. 2a.I: RKD, no. 290640: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290640 (July 19, 2020). According to Van Gelder & Jost 1972, pp. 224–5, fig. 2a/b, 229, fig. 7, this is the left half of a painting that was sawn in two; Reiss 1975, p. 58, no. 29; Chong 1992, no. 30; Chong 1993, p. 286, no. 30; see also https://collections.lacma.org/node/230263 (July 13, 2018). Aert Schouman had made a drawing after the supposed original picture in 1759 (see Related works, no. 2c). The supposed right half of the picture is in Leipzig: Related works, no. 2a.II: RKD, no. 250983: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/250983 (July 17, 2018). According to Chong the pictures in Los Angeles [Related works, no. 2.a.I], and Leipzig do not belong together. Nicolaisen 2012, p. 85, however agrees with Van Gelder & Jost: ‘comparison of the X-ray images of both pictures demonstrates extensive similarities in terms of the panels, motifs, composition and style of painting’.
9 RKD, no. 56959: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/56959 (July 17, 2018); Van Gelder & Jost 1972, pp. 229 (fig. 8), 231, 239 (note 27), as Jacob van Strij; see https://www.teylersmuseum.nl/en/collection/art/p-040-gezicht-op-de-riedijkse-poort-te-dordrecht (July 17, 2018); Schwartz 2004, p. 414, no. 611 (Abraham van Strij I); Beck 2002, p. 268 (note 12) as Jacob van Strij; Dumas 2000, pp. 153–4 (fig. 223), 240, no. 138 (as Abraham van Strij I).
10 RKD, no. 21942: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/21942 (July 19, 2020).
11 RKD, no. 290676: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290676 (Sept. 11, 2018); MacLaren & Brown 1991, pp. 94–5, no. 2545; Wheelock 2001a, pp. 102–3, 188–9, no. 7 (A. Rüger). See also https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/aelbert-cuyp-a-river-scene-with-distant-windmills (July 17, 2018).
12 RKD, no. 290629: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290629 (July 16, 2018); Chong 1993, p. 285, no. 29, incorrectly says that this is no. 33 of the Cockburn prints.
13 Notes from Remmelt Daalder sent to Ellinoor Bergvelt, 28 March 2018 and 9 April 2018 (DPG60 file).
14 Desenfans 1802, pp. 144–5, no. 143: ‘A Landscape with Cattle and Figures. One cannot refrain indulging a wish for the country, while considering this morceau, which traces nature in one of her happiest scenes, offering a gay, extended landscape, and immense sky, whose silvery masses float on the calmest breezes. In the back-ground, a chalky uneven soil, covered with a few scanty blades of grass, is occupied by three peasants conversing; and not far from them, a flock of sheep are feeding. On the right, two goats are browsing on a sand bank, bordered with shrubs – a river glides on the farther side; the left is enriched with a tree, at the foot of which, in an inclosure, is a group of cattle. We are not sensible of exaggeration, when we assert, that if ever a cabinet picture has united in itself, the perfections of the art, it is the present one. On pannel.’
15 ‘Cuyp. Landscape with Sheep and Figures. A worthy companion to No. 4; but composed entirely of cool tints; the sky is one of the most perfect representations of the cool silvery tones of nature, we ever saw.’
16 ‘We now meet with a picture very different in character from all the preceding, and one that I can scarcely believe to have proceeded from the same pencil. Not that it is inconsistent with them in character and effect; but the manner, both of the colouring and the handling, is entirely different. It is, however, a very pleasing work, and is touched (but not coloured) somewhat in the manner of Paul Potter. […] The whole scene is light, lively and pleasing; but there is a crudeness about it, which takes considerably from the general effect. The parts correspond with each other, but they do not unite.’
17 ‘Shepherds keeping Sheep. A landscape, with a river flowing on the left, on the bank of which are two goats browsing; and in an adjoining meadow are three peasants, and a flock of sheep. On the opposite side is a tree, and a group of cattle in an enclosure near it. The more distant land presents the appearance of a chalky soil, on which grow a few scanty blades of grass. Collection of Noel Desenfans, Esq., 1802; 105 gs.’
18 Leslie discusses what he refers to as a ‘small “Sunset” by Cuyp’; although DPG348 is small, it is more likely that his comments (see DPG128, note 39) relate to the larger DPG128. Moreover this surely would never be taken as a sunset.
19 ‘The impression of a desert plain is here well given. A particularly important work of the master, as it is painted in his earliest style, of which only a few examples have come down to us. It somewhat recalls the manner of van Goijen.’
20 ‘The marked influence of Van Goyen makes it likely that it is a very early work, perhaps c. 1640, since there are some identical details in a portrait group dated 1641 in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and Reiss (1975) points out that the two goats at the left must have been painted from Cuyp’s father’s drawings, used for engravings in Diversa Animalia, 1641.’
21 ‘An early work, influenced by Van Goyen, datable c. 1640–41. As noted by Reiss, the goats were taken from drawings made by Cuyp’s father for a set of engravings published by Nicolaes Visscher [sic; should be Claes Jansz. Visscher] in 1641 under the title Diversa Animalia Quadrupedia.’
22 RKD, no. 290717: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290717 (Sept. 11, 2018); Wheelock 2001a, pp. 94–5, 187, no. 3 (A. Chong).
23 RKD, no. 29073: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290731 (Sept. 11, 2018); Hollstein 1955, p. 103; Veldman & De Hoop Scheffer 1976, no. 23; see also: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.162451 (July 19, 2020).
24 Chong 1992, n.p., no. 11; Chong 1993, p. 273, no. 11.
25 Sutton 1992, pp. 55–6, with colour plate.
26 RKD, no. 223575: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/223575 (Aug. 21, 2018); Wheelock 2001a, pp. 88–91, 186, no. 1 (A. Chong); Haverkamp-Begemann 1998, pp. 72–8; Chong 1993, p. 318, under no. 71.
27 RKD, no. 290642: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290642 (July 16, 2018); Chong 1993, p. 274, no. 12, incorrectly states that this is no. 32 of the Cockburn series.
28 The pair collaborated on three group portraits, two dated 1641 and another of 1645, and several landscapes with shepherds. In these, Jacob painted the figures and Aelbert the landscapes (for instance in Related works, no. 1) [9]. The figures in DPG348 are consistent with Aelbert Cuyp’s style.