Philips Koninck

Edward Higgins, Saltmarshe Castle, by 1842;
His sale, London, Christie's, 4 June 1846, lot 140, to Woodin;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 19 April 1989, lot 37 (as Jan Looten);
Private collection, New York;
With French & Co., New York, 2002.

Hamburg, Kunsthalle, 18 January - 1 April 2002, Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, 27 April - 29 July 2002, Jacob van Ruisdael: Die Revolution der Landschaft (in Dutch: De revolutie van het Hollandse landschap), no. 44.

Catalogue of the Pictures at Saltmarshe Castle, 1842, no. 48;
H. Gerson, Philips Koninck, Berlin 1936, p. 113, no. 95;
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt Schüler, Landau/Pfalz 1983, vol. VI, p. 3723, no. 2342, reproduced p. 3948.
K. Müller, in M. Sitt & P. Biesboer, Jacob van Ruisdael. Die Revolution der Landschaft, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle 2002, pp. 136-7, no. 44, reproduced.

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas appears in a good condition; it was examined in the frame with a cardboard backboard attached and it was not therefore possible to access the reverse. However, there are no obvious planar deformations and the overall tension appears good. The paint layers appear in good condition with no recent damages or loss. There is a slightly prominent weave texture across the surface and a network of fine craqulure across the paint surface, all of which appears stable. There have been distinct losses to the paint and ground layers which have been filled and retouched during a previous restoration campaign. There are also scattered small retouching throughout. These areas of over-paint do not appear to be visually disturbing. These appear more likely to cover areas of thinness in the original paint. There appears to have been at least two campaigns of over-paint applied. These appear slightly differently under ultra violet examination, and are more prominent across the sky and in the cleaner areas of the composition. The painting has a discoloured natural resin varnish layer present; this appears to have been preferentially removed from the lightest areas of the composition, for example, the figure and with the small flock have had the varnish layer removed while the majority of the varnish remains on the darker areas of the composition. The painting was examined in the frame.
"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."

Here Philips Koninck shows us a peasant dwelling set amid a thick forest of tall trees under whose canopy all human and animal life takes place.  Koninck painted thick clumps of trees as repoussoirs in some of his open panoramas, such as the picture of 1668 in Leerdam, Hofje van Aarden, a rare dated late work that is a pointer to the likely dating of the present picture.¹  A handful of densely wooded landscapes by Koninck are known, although they usually have a more open foreground.  A good example is the painting datable to the late 1660s in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.²

The present picture, much larger than other late wooded landscapes, is painted on a scale directly comparable with Koninck's broad panoramic landscapes of the 1650s.  Werner Sumowski dated it to the late 1660s, describing it as "one of the most important landscape paintings of Koninck's late career".

Koninck also made a handful of drawings of dense forests, of which the best example is the sheet in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, dated by both Gerson and Sumowski to the late 1670s.³  A comparison with the present painting is compelling, to the extent that if the Haarlem drawing and those like it are from the late 1670s, the present work is more likely to be from the same decade.   

Gerson, who only knew this picture from the Saltmarshe catalogue and the Higgins sale catalogue, thought it might be identical with his no. 4, but this is not so.

1.  See Sumowski, under Literature, vol. III, p. 1549, no. 106, reproduced p. 1616.
2.  Idem, p. 1549, no. 1068, reproduced p. 1618 (as Zurich, Galerie Bruno Meissner).
3. See Gerson, under Literature, p. 67, no. Z.39, reproduced plate 40, & W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York 1982, vol. 6, p. 3046, no. 1364, reproduced.  For a similar drawing in the British Museum, London: idem, p. 3348, no. 1512*, reproduced.