RKD STUDIES

Antwerp, baptised 21 February 1627–Antwerp, 25 September 1679
Flemish painter and etcher

Many members of his family were also artists. In 1641 or 1643 Philips Augustijn Immenraet became a pupil of Lucas van Uden (1595–1672/3), an Antwerp landscape painter. Probably from 1645 until 1654/5 he was in Italy, where he was influenced by Salvator Rosa (1615–73). After his return he became master of the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp (1654–5), and he remained in that city until his death.

LITERATURE
Hollstein 1953b, pp. 197–8; Bernt 1970, ii, p. 62, fig. 577; Bodart 1970b, i, pp. 365–6, 371, ii, 44, fig. 193 (Immenraedt); Thiéry & Kervyn de Meerendre 1987, pp. 179–81; De Séjournet 1994; De Maere & Wabbes 1994, i, p. 228, ii, pp. 642–5; Dictionnaire 1995, ii, p. 548; Devisscher 1996a, p. 523; Saur, lxxvi, 2013, p. under Andries Immenraet (M. Peyer); Ecartico, no. 3986: http://www.vondel.humanities.uva.nl/ecartico/persons/3986 (June 18, 2017); RKDartists&, no. 40995: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/40995 (June 18, 2017).

c. 1666–78; canvas, 133.6 x 143.1 cm

PROVENANCE
Bequest of Mr John Watts, Kent House, Upper Deal, 1940.

REFERENCES
PGC Minutes, 7 Nov. 1940, p. 84;¹ Murray 1980a, p. 305 (Flemish School); Beresford 1998, p. 311, no. 651 (Unknown); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 120 (attributed to Philips Augustijn Immenraet); RKD no. 284894: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/284894 (June 20, 2017).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Medium plain-weave linen canvas, paste-lined (2004) onto fine linen canvas; there is an original horizontal join across the centre. The original tacking edges are missing, and at some point the left side was turned over and used as a tacking margin (it is now part of the main picture plane once again). It appears that the original canvas was cut down at some stage. There are some relatively minor (filled and retouched) damages to the support, including a chip in the lower left group of trees and a deep scratch in the lower left corner. The ground is red and contains red ochre, calcite and some lead white. The paint layers are generally in good condition and the craquelure, which has cupped and flaked in the past, seems to have been consolidated by the recent conservation. The layer structure of the paint varies from area to area: the sky is composed of two layers containing good quality ultramarine on top of smalt, while the landscape is much more complex, with a layer of brown ‘dead colouring’ over the ground and several further layers on top of this. The foliage in the lower part of the painting seems blanched, possibly due to the processes used in the old, 19th-century lining. Previous recorded treatment: 1994, tacking edges temporarily repaired and re-attached to stretcher, tears in canvas secured, S. Plender; 2004, technical analysis undertaken, L. Sheldon; 2004, old lining removed, relined and restretched, R. Watkiss; 2004, cleaned, losses filled, retouched, S. Plender.

RELATED WORKS
1) Philips Augustijn Immenraet, Landscape with Waterfall (La Chasse au loup – The Wolf Hunt), signed and dated Imm...aet F / 1678, canvas, 59.5 x 76 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Sotheby’s, 15 April 1999, lot 52) [1].²
2) Philips Augustijn Immenraet, Meleager and Atalante, canvas, 139.7 x 157.4 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Christie’s, 27 July 1947, lot 43).³
3) Philips Augustijn Immenraet, Landscape, signed and dated P – AUGUSTE IMMENR. 1666, canvas, 208 x 272 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg, D.44.976.0.10 (or RF 1946-36) [2].⁴
4a, 4b) Johann Jakob Hartmann, Allegory of Water and Allegory of Earth, both on copper, 83.6 x 118 cm. National Gallery, Prague, O 18771 and O 18772.⁵

The picture entered the collection under the name ‘Hannsbergen’ – probably Jan van Haensbergen (1642–1705), who lived in Gorinchem, Utrecht and The Hague, and painted portraits and landscapes. His pictures look very much like the mythological and Biblical scenes of Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/5–1667), and seem to us to bear no relation to DPG651. The convincing attribution to the Antwerp painter Philips Augustijn Immenraet was made by Marijke de Kinkelder of the RKD.⁶ At first she referred especially to a landscape by Immenraet dated 1678 in which a wolf hunt is depicted (Related works, no. 1) [1]; later she compared DPG651 to one dated 1666, auctioned in London in 1949 (Related works, no. 2). Another comparable picture by Immenraet, signed and dated 1666, is now in Strasbourg (Related works, no. 3) [2].

It seems that the figures in DPG651 are by a different hand, probably close to Johann Jakob Hartmann (before 1658–1736/45), a Bohemian landscape painter who was very much influenced by Antwerp landscapists such as Jan Brueghel I (1568–1625) and by artists of the Frankenthal School. Two of Hartmann’s pictures were acquired by the National Gallery in Prague in 2005 (Related works, nos 4a, 4b). It remains a question how the two artists could have collaborated, while one was working in Antwerp and the other in Bohemia. In any case there were close links between landscapists in Bohemia and in Flanders. Was there an earlier painter of figures who worked in Flanders in the style that Hartmann later would develop in Eastern Europe? During a CODART-meeting on 2 December 2013 in Dulwich Picture Gallery it was suggested that DPG651 was by a Franco-Italian painter, in the circle of Salvator Rosa (who is known to have influenced Immenraet as well). According to us, however, as long as no name of such a painter has come up, or his works, De Kinkelder’s suggestion is more credible.

It is unclear what mythological or allegorical scene is depicted.

DPG651
attributed to Philips Augustijn Immenraet
Woodland landscape, c. 1666
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG651

1
Philips Augustijn Immenraet
Landscape with a company on a brdige crossing a water fall, 1678 (dated)

2
Philips Augustijn Immenraet
Landscape, dated 1666
Strasbourg, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg (Palais Rohan), inv./cat.nr. D.44.976.0.10 (or RF 1946-36)