Aert van der Neer

Private collection, Groningen, until 1826;
Probably Colonel Biré, Brussels;
Héris collection, Brussels, (reputedly bought from the above) by 1826;
His sale, Paris, Paillet, 25 March 1841, lot 35;
Etienne le Roy, Brussels;
His sale, Paris, Paillet, 18 April 1842;
William Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, Château d'Ixelles;
His sale, Château d'Ixelles, Le Roy, 15 June 1846, lot 23, for 3500 francs to Tardieu;
Tardieu sale, Paris, Simonet, 4 February 1851, lot 26;
Piérard Collection, Valenciennes;
His deceased sale, Paris, Laneuville, 20 March 1860, lot 50;
J.H. Ten Bos, Almelo;
Henry Louis Bischoffsheim (1829-1909), Bute House, South Audley Street, London;
Sold by order of his Trustees, London, Christie's, 7 May 1926, lot 74, for £577.10s to Duits;
With J. Leger, 1928;
With D. Katz, Dieren, 1933;
Anonymous sale 15 July 1936 (listed by Schulz, below);
With Schaeffer Galleries, New York, 1936-37;
J.F. van Abbe, Aalst;
His sale, Paris, Charpentier, 25 April 1951, lot 52;
With Agnew's, London, 1984;
With Cramer, The Hague, 1984, no. 35.

Amsterdam, Winterlandschappen, 1932, no. 57;
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, & Arnhem, Gemeente Museum, 1934;
Nijmegen, Huize Belvoir, 1936, no. 38;
New York, Great Dutch Masters, 1936, no. 11;
Detroit, Institute of Arts (lent by D. Katz);
Indianapolis, John Herron Art Museum, Dutch Paintings of the 17th Century, 1937, no. 47;
Amsterdam, Arti et Amicitiae, 1938, no. 51;
San Francisco, San Francisco Museum; Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum; and Providence, Rhode Island, Dutch Painting in the 17th Century, 1938, no. 33;
Tilburg, Oude Kunst in Brabants Bezit, 1948, no. 45.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue raisonné......, vol. VII, London 1923, pp. 331-2, no. 10 ('the picture may be regarded as the most important of its kind');
W. Schulz, Aert van der Neer, Doornspijk 2002, p. 182, no. 196, reproduced fig. 61 (as present whereabouts unknown).

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The canvas has an old lining which is still providing a secure and stable structural support on a keyed wooden stretcher. Paint Surface The paint surface has a discoloured yellow varnish layer with a number of surface deposits. The varnish surface is slightly uneven, particularly over areas of old retouching. There is some slight abrasion visible in the left side of the sky just above the trees on the left of the composition. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a number of small scattered retouchings in the sky and clouds on the right of the composition and a concentrated area of retouching in the dark clouds in the upper left of the composition. There are other small scattered retouchings in the sky. There is very little evidence of retouching on the figures, buildings and details in the foreground but there may be old retouchings beneath the varnish layers which are not evident under ultra-violet light. Inspection under ultra-violet light also confirms how discoloured the varnish layers have become and suggests that the painting should respond very well to cleaning. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition with the potential to be transformed should the painting be cleaned, restored and revarnished.
"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."

Hofstede de Groot was unstinting in his praise of this winter scene, which he wrote, 'may be regarded as the most important of its kind. The colouring is brilliant and the movement of the figures is convincingly rendered'.  He identified the view as a scene on the river Amstel in Amsterdam, identifying the semi-fortified house and city walls on the right of the composition as the old town gate, demolished in 1841, to be replaced by the 'Lovers' bridge'. Such topographical exactitude would, however, be unusual for Van der Neer, whose primary concern in works such as this was to capture the effects of light and atmosphere in the winter sky and the bustle of the crowd moving over the clear blue ice, and for whom topographical elements were more normally used as occasional compositional aids rather than to lend a particular sense of place¹. Another view of Amsterdam in winter, however, dating from the early 1660s and depicting the Oude Schans and the Montelbaanstoren, survives in a private collection.²  Aert van der Neer began to paint winter landscapes in the mid-1640s, but none of them are dated. Schulz (op. cit.) suggests a dating for this work to the 1660s.

This is one of two works by Van der Neer that formed part of the celebrated collection of the wealthy Jewish financier Henri Bischoffsheim (1829-909) kept at Bute House in Mayfair. The other, a Moonlit river landscape formerly in the collection of King Willem II of The Netherlands, is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.³  As well as outstanding French and English 18th-century works, Bischofffsheim's collection included a number of important Dutch paintings; including Jacob van Ruisdael's View of Amsterdam later in the Phillips collection in Eindhoven until sold in these Rooms, 6 December 2006, lot 23; Jacob van Ochtervelt's Dish of Oysters now in a private collection; and Phillips de Koninck's Extensive landscape of 1654, today in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

1. One such example is his depiction of the ruins of Kostverloren, a castle on the banks of the Amstel in the Moonlit landscape of 1646 in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (see Schulz, under Literature, no. 377).
2. For this and the related drawing see F. Bachmann, Aert van der Neer, Bremen 1982, pp. 127, 134-5, reproduced.
3. Inv. RB 343.2. Schulz, op. cit., p. 196, no. 255.