Johannes Lingelbach

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, 17 April 1759, lot 6;
Johannes Verkolje, Amsterdam;
His deceased sale, Amsterdam, De Winter, 24 October 1763, lot 3;
M. van der Pot, Rotterdam;
Baron Johan Gijsbert Verstolk van Soelen (1776-1845), The Hague;
His deceased sale, Amsterdam, 28 June 1846;
Sir Thomas Baring (1799-1873), 2nd Bt, Stratton Park, Hampshire, by 1854;
Sir Francis Baring, 3rd Bt. and 1st Baron Northbrook;
Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl Northbrook (1826-1904), then by descent to
Francis George Baring, 2nd Earl Northbrook (1850-1929);
With P. & D. Colnaghi, London, 1936 & 1943;
With Gallery Müller, Buenos Aires;
Where purchased by a private collector, 11 July 1944;
Then by descent to their daughter;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 12 December 1990, lot 89;
Private collection, New York.

Jerusalem, Israel Museum of Art, on loan, 1995-2004.

G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. II, London 1854, p. 186;
W. H. J. Weale & J. P. Richter, Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection Edition of Pictures Belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, 2 vols., London 1889, no. 69;
Advertisement in The Burlington Magazine, March 1943, p. iii (advertisement placed by P & D Colnaghi);
W. Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. II, Munich 1970, reproduced fig. 690;
C. Burger-Wegener, Johannes Lingelbach, dissertation, University of Berlin 1976, pp. 127, 282, no. 116.

The following conditiion report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. Structural Condition The canvas has been lined and this is providing a sound and stable structural support and has secured the overall pattern of feint craquelure. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and the feint craquelure pattern mentioned above is not visually distracting. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows small scattered retouchings, the most significant of which are: 1) a thin diagonal line which is approximately 7 cm in length which is in the sky on the right of the composition between the central tree and the right vertical framing edge. 2) A vertical line approximately 5 cm in length above the shoulder of the standing figure with the red cap in the lower left of the composition, and other very small scattered retouchings on the surrounding figures, and 3) small areas of retouching on the costumes of the two dancing figures in the centre of the composition. There are other small scattered retouchings. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition having been carefully treated in the past and no further work is required.
"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."

Unlike the majority of the Dutch Italianate painters, the Frankfurt-born Lingelbach spent a lengthy sojourn in Italy, living in Rome between 1644 and 1650.  His output there at moments comes very close to the work of the Dutchman Pieter van Laer, called Bamboccio, the Fleming Jan Miel, and the Italian Michelangelo Cerquozzi.  His paintings remain thoroughly Italianate for the rest of his career, and frequently depict landmarks from Rome and the port of Livorno, but his later paintings take on a cooler steely grey tonality, such as we see here in the sky, which gives the impression of a hazy, almost smoky, late afternoon as the heat of the day recedes.  The figures in his own paintings remain thoroughly Italian - those in the present picture are particularly good examples of this - although paradoxically the staffage that he contributed to the landscapes of many other painters, including Jacob van Ruisdael, are less obviously so.  Burger-Wegener dates this picture circa 1660, some seven years after Lingelbach settled in Amsterdam.

Lingelbach usually crowded his pictures with large numbers of figures.  Despite its subject, this more economically-composed work has an unusually tranquil mood.  Burger-Wegener noted the "dune-like" sandy hills in the background, a characteristic of a small group of pictures that she dates circa 1660.

PROVENANCE
This painting belonged to Johannes Verkolje, son of the painter of the same name, and was in his sale in 1763.  Later it was recorded in the cabinet of Baron Verstolk van Soelen, an influential figure in Dutch early 19th Century politics, who became Minister for Foreign Affairs. Probably after Verstolk's deceased sale in 1846, and certainly by 1854, it was in the collection of Thomas Baring at Stratton, where Waagen saw it. Waagen's preamble to his Letter XVI notes that Baring acquired pictures from among others, the gallery of the late Baron Verstolk, and among the pictures he lists of Baring's Dutch and Flemish collection with this provenance are a Gabriel Metsu, an Adriaan van de Velde, an Aelbert Cuyp, a Gerrit Berckheyde, and all three of Baring's Jan Steens.