Jan Josefsz. van Goyen

Private collection, Stockholm, Sweden;
With Van Diemen & Co., Amsterdam;
With Guido Arnot, London, by 1938;
Anita M. Baldwin, Los Angeles, by 1941;
Gift of the Estate of Anita M. Baldwin to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1951 (acc. no. 51.29.1).

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum, The Balch Museum and Old Masters from Los Angeles Collections. Assembled in Memory of Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch, March 26 - April 30, 1944, no. 32 (lent by the Estate of Anita M. Baldwin);
La Jolla, CA, La Jolla Museum of Art, Dutch and Flemish Paintings of the Northern Renaissance, June 13-September 20, 1964, cat. no. 9.

L. Ballard, "Three Panels by Jan van Goyen," in Quarterly of the Los Angeles County Museum, January 1942, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 11-15, reproduced p. 14;
"Dutch Paintings: More new Acquisitions", in Bulletin of the Art Division. Los Angeles County Museum, vol. V, no. 2, Spring 1953, pp. 4 (and note 2), 5;  
P. Wescher and E. Feinblatt, Los Angeles County Museum, Catalogue of Paintings, II: A Catalogue of Flemish, German, Dutch and English Paintings, XV-XVIII Century, Los Angeles 1954, p. 39, cat. no. 40, reproduced;
A. Dobrzycka, Jan van Goyen, Posen 1966, cat. no. 91, reproduced;
H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656, vol. II, Amsterdam 1973, p. 380, cat. no. 850, reproduced;
P.C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America, Grand Rapids 1986, pp. 132, 336;
S. Schaefer et al, European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1987, p. 46, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in very healthy and fresh condition. The reverse of the panel is un-reinforced and has been treated with wax and although this is an unusual treatment, it does not appear to have had any adverse effects to the picture. The paint layer is slightly dirty yet visually seems to be in beautiful state. Under ultraviolet light one can see a few spots of retouch in the sky, which are to be expected. There are two diagonal scratches, one in the upper center and one in the middle right which are the only restorations of note. The foreground and the ship are in beautiful condition. There is no reason not to clean this picture and improve the retouches, which at present are not particularly accurate. The wax could also be removed from the reverse, but the picture could also be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This peaceful river estuary scene, in which fishermen are busy at work on their moored vessels unloading their catch, is typical of Van Goyen's output from 1638 to circa 1640 when his landscapes are characterised by a dominant silvery-grey tonality, interspersed with local color, here in the sky and embankment. It pre-dates the austerly monochromatic landscapes on the middle to late 1640s, always intensely horizontal in format, in which a yellowy golden brown tone usually predominates.

Another version of the composition, also dated 1640 and with the same arrangement of fishing boats but excluding the majority of the figure group on the embankment, is recorded by Beck in the E. Vis-Johnson collection, Lausanne.¹

1. See under Literature, p. 381, no. 851, reproduced.