KLAES MOLENAER | A waterfall in a mountainous river landscape

Lt.-Col. Sir Richard Cotterell, Bt.;

By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 27 November 1957, lot 45 (as by A. van Everdingen);

With H.L. Leger, London, 1957;

With Galerie Sankt Lucas, Vienna, 1958 (when exhibited at the Antiekbeurs, Delft, Prinsenhof);

With H. Sperling, New York, 1958;

With Alfred Brod, London, after 1959;

With D. Vaarties, Rotterdam, 1961;

With J. R. Bier, Haarlem, 1961-62;

J. van Duijvendijk, Scheveningen;

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 22 October 1979, lot 457, where acquired.

L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den großen Meistern. Landschaften und Stilleben, Brunswick 1969, pp. 204 and 372, note 279, reproduced p. 204, fig. 197 (as dated 1653);

A.I. Davies, Allert van Everdingen, New York 1978, doctoral diss., p. 216, reproduced fig. 277;

A.I. Davies, Allert van Everdingen 1621-1675: first painter of Scandinavian landscape, pp. 173-74, reproduced fig. 197 (as possibly dated 165(?8));

J.E. Walford, Jacob van Ruisdael and the perception of landscape, London 1991, p. 105, reproduced fig. 101 (as dated 1658);

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 3, Landschaften und Seestücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2001, pp. 166-69, cat. no. 41, reproduced in colour;

S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael: a complete catalogue of his paintings, drawings, and etchings, New Haven 2001, p. 159, under cat. no. 144, reproduced fig. 144a (as Attributed to Klaes Molenaer);

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M.J. Bok et al, At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 78, cat. no. 65, reproduced in colour.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 65.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

This composition by Klaes Molenaer displays similarities with two landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael. The upright format, the diagonal flow of the water, and much of the foliage that frames the scene can be closely compared to Ruisdael's landscape in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp,¹ while the small cottage and the castle on the hill seems to be a quotation from Ruisdael's painting in a Scottish Private Collection.² 

This work once was attributed to Allert van Everdingen (see Davies, in Literature), an artist known for his rugged Scandinavian landscapes and waterfalls that not only made up the majority of his body of work, but also had a profound impact on the work of Ruisdael. 

1 http://collectie.kmska.be/#/query/fb9ee19d-1a17-4b8f-9dbf-e847747393cf

2 Oil on canvas, 119.5 x 180.5 cm.; see Slive 2001, pp. 234-35, cat. no. 277, reproduced in colour.