Aert van der Neer

Acquired in the 18th century by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1762-63, or his son, for Luton Hoo;
Thence by descent until sold London, Christie's, 30 November 1973, lot 12 to Alfred Brod;
Private collection, Germany, by 1984.

British Institution, 1847, no. 84;
London, Bethnal Green Museum, 1883, and Glasgow, 1884, Paintings from the Collection of the Marquis of Bute, K.T., no. 132;
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Holländische Malerei aus Berliner Privatbesitz, 1984, no. 47.

J.P. Richter, Catalogue of the collection of paintings lent for exhibition by the Marquis of Bute, K.T., London and Glasgow 1883/4, pp. 38-9, no. 132;
J.P. Richter, Catalogue of the Bute Collection, 1898, no. R.120;
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, London 1914, vol. IV, p. 1475;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VII, London 1923, p. 432, no. 461;
J. Kelch, Holländische Malerei aus Berliner Privatbesitz, exhibition catalogue, Berlin 1984, p. 96, no. 47, reproduced p. 97;
U. Bendix, in E. Mai (ed.), Das Kabinett des Sammlers.  Gemälde vom XV. bis XVIII. Jahrhundert, Cologne 1993, pp. 190-92, reproduced p. 191;
W, Schulz, Aert van der Neer, Doornspijk 2002, p. 462, no. 1380, reproduced in colour plate 62 and fig. 242.

It is quite possible that, as a resident of Amsterdam, Aert van der Neer witnessed the momentous fire at the city's town hall in 1652. This event was documented in painting by Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Beerstraten among others, and, although van der Neer is not known to have created a documentary work himself, the dramatic blaze may well have inspired the depictions of fiery landscapes within his oeuvre, including the current work.

In another painting of the same subject, from the collection of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, van der Neer has similarly used a river to draw the eye to the back of the composition, where the buildings of a town stand silhouetted against a powerful blaze.¹ Though the moon does feature in the present painting, its illumination is rather sidelined by the flames, their energetic animation contrasting entirely with the piercing lunar light. Van der Neer is most famed for this understanding of and fascination with the subtleties of depicting light and its different 'personalities'.

1. See Schulz under Literature, p. 456, no. 1357, reproduced fig. 246.