Barend Cornelis Koekkoek

Possibly Galerie Ravene, Berlin
Private Collection, USA

Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Dresden 1891, bd.1, no. 12.
Possibly identical to F. Gorissen, B.C. Koekkoek, Werkverzeichnis der Gemalde, Dusseldorf 1962, no. 0/80-2

Straight panel. Halfway the left and the right edge a recently well restored horizontal haircrack in the sky, each approx. 8 cm. Along the right edge some vertical retouches due to frame abrasion. Some very minor craquelure in the tree above the travellers and some above the hills. In very good condition.
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By the 1840's Barend Cornelis Koekkoek had reached the pinnacle of his skill and fame. He had left Holland in 1834 with his new wife Elise Therese Daiwaille to settle in the health resort of Cleves, just across the Dutch border in Germany, drawn to the hilly Rhine landscape with its panoramic views that surrounded the city. Equally important to Koekkoek, was that Cleves could serve as an ideal location from which to maintain regular contact with the new German collectors he had cultivated following his success at the Salons in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and London that had made him a celebrated and highly sought after artist.  In 1841, he founded his own drawing academy which attracted numerous pupils. Two years later, in 1843, he built a four storey studio tower at the highest point on the edge of the town.  Finally, below the tower on lower ground a palazzo-like private house was completed in 1848 to match his social standing which by then had almost reached the level of an important aristocrat.

In the present lot, Koekkoek combines all the aspects of his studies, travels and artistic ideals into a marvellous landscape painting. We see a panoramic view with a sandy path in the foreground winding its way diagonally into the distance. The path divides the composition into three distinct parts: foreground, middle and background. To the left, the landscape opens onto a wide view of an extensive lake with anchored boats floating in the serene evening light. The branches of an impressive tree bend like a canopy over the lake. In the foreground, two men are conversing, a rider on horseback and a man with his donkey. The horseman is wearing Italian clothes. In the centre a mother and her children are saying a prayer in front of a roadside chapel, a German Romantic theme Koekkoek often used in the 1840's. Further to the right, the path branches off by a farmhouse and disappears in the distance through a mountain pass. The central part of the composition is formed by steep hills with ruins of medieval castles. Throughout, the entire composition is bathed in a soft evening glow. The warm sunlight falls from the right to permeate each branch, leaf and bough.
This recently discovered painting seems to show Koekkoek's own interpretation of an Italian landscape. The warm light, the quiet lake, the rocky peaks and the Italianate clothing of the superbly detailed figures all contribute to this sense of Italy, reminding us of famous Dutch Italianists from the Golden Age such as Nicolaas Berghem and Jan Both.  This lot may also be the same painting titled 'Italienische Landschaft', that is mentioned in Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Dresden 1891, bd.1, no. 12.
Koekkoek has beautifully joined a seamless composition of many layers flowing smoothly from one part to the next with his brilliance for fine detail and the highest level of virtuosity in painting to make 'An extensive summer landscape with travellers on a path' a masterpiece in his oeuvre.

Guido de Werd
Director B.C. Koekkoek-haus, Cleves

Guido de Werd is currently preparing the revised catalogue raisonné on Barend Cornelis Koekkoek.