Cornelis Hendricksz. Vroom Haarlem circa 1591 - 1661

(Note: the 1942 - 1972 provenance was supplied "unverified" in a letter from Dr. George Keyes to Dr. Herweg in 1981).
Kheremetev Collection, Russia;
Count Zhubov, Berlin, 1931;
Van Es Collection, Wassenaar, 1942;
Schütlein Gallery, The Hague;
H.W. Lange Gallery, Berlin, 1943;
C.E. Wessel Collection, Hamburg, circa 1943;
With Paul Vogel, Lucerne, from whom bought by the Herwegs in 1972.

 

J. Rosenberg, Jacob van Ruisdael, Berlin 1928, p. 95, no. 377a;
Die Weltkunst, 1 May 1972, reproduced in an advertisement;
S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael, New Haven/London 2001, p. 258, no. 319, reproduced.

Cornelis Vroom holds an important place in the history of northern European landscape painting, for it was his work, notably his drawings, that were to play a pivotal role in the development of perhaps the greatest of all seventeenth century landscapists, Jacob van Ruisdael.  Later in his career, however, Vroom was in turn influenced by Ruisdael, whose development as a landscapist in the second half of the 1640s was astonishingly rapid.  The Herweg picture is a good example of how Vroom absorbed these influences from the younger painter, who by circa 1650 was setting the standard for landscape painting in Haarlem.  Probably painted around 1650 or in the early 1650s, It reflects Ruisdael's style of the late 1640s, including his etchings, but in its colour scheme, however, it moderates the green, yellow and brown tones of Ruisdael's naturalistic palette with lighter more summery colours, notably the rich blue of the sky  - that nod to the Italianate painters, and to artists who depicted the Dutch landscape in a fresh light, such as Adriaen van de Velde.  Vroom here bathes his landscape with a strong summer light which imbues the trees and their leaves and the grass and distant cornfield with great luminosity.  Of Vroom's late work, the Herweg picture may best be compared to one of the late pictures from Dresden, no. 1381, in which the handling of the trunk and foliage of the trees is particularly similar (see W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler und Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1970, no. 1361).

Presumably this picture was long given to Ruisdael, whose signature appears in the lower left corner.  It is believed that the attribution to Vroom was first made by Wolfgang Stechow.  Walther Bernt described it as a late work, comparing it with Vroom's late landscapes in Dresden.  In a letter to the Herwegs in 1981, George Keyes noted that he knew the picture from a photograph only after the publication of his monograph on the artist, but at the time confirmed the attribution upon first-hand inspection. He has not however, had the opportunity to inspect the picture recently and therefore reserves judgement on it.  

Both Rosenberg and Slive (see Literature) knew this picture from an old black and white photograph.  Upon examination of a new transparency, (September 2005) Professor Slive has confirmed the reservations expressed about this traditional attribution in his 2001 catalogue (see Slive, under Literature).  To judge from it, he sees no grounds for retaining the old attribution to Ruisdael.

Sold with the certificate of Dr. Walther Bernt, dated 23 April 1972.