Johan Barthold Jongkind

Théophile Bascle, Bordeaux;

His sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12-14 April 1883, lot 46 as Schiedam: Effet de lune;

Acquired at the above sale by M. Lucas;

Probably with E. J. Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam;

From whom probably acquired by a private collector, early 20th century

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's New York, 1 February 2019, lot 461;

Where acquired by the present owner

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 15 May- 10 June, 1899, no. 29, (as Clair de Lune sur un Canal, lent by M. Lucas) 

É. Moreau-Nélaton, Jongkind raconté par lui-même, Paris 1918, p. 144, cat. no. 46 (as Schiedam; effet de lune) 

V. Hefting, Jongkind, sa vie, son oeuvre, son époque, Paris 1975, p. 113, no. 184, reproduced

A. Stein, S. Brame, F. Lorenceau and J. Sinizergues (eds.), Jongkind, Catalogue critique de l’oeuvre, Paris, 2003, vol. 1, p. 122, cat. no. 204, reproduced

Upon moving to Paris in 1846, Johan Barthold Jongkind promptly joined an influential creative circle which included Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau and Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire was an ardent supporter of Jongkind’s, his position made clear in his controversial reviews of the Salons of 1845 and 1846, brazenly calling for artists to turn away from classical subjects and academic teachings and embrace “the heroism of modern life,” which the artist took to heart.¹ After winning medals and enjoying great success and state purchases from the Paris Salons of 1851 and 1852, Jongkind returned to his home country in 1855. Here, he turned his focus to marine landscapes, which became his most iconic and celebrated subjects. In these compositions he lowers the horizon and focuses on an active expanse of sky, characteristics shared by the seventeenth-century Dutch masters and his friend and peer, Eugène-Louis Boudin. In the present work, a complex and rigorously painted nocturne, Jongkind offers a peaceful view of modern industrial bustle and explores the effects of light on water. Backlit by a shining full moon, the row boat of the foreground is overwhelmed by the towering windmills and tall-mast ships, which crowd the atmospheric harbor of Rotterdam.

We would like to thank the Comité Jongkind Paris-La Haye for kindly contributing catalogue information and confirming the authenticity of this lot which will be included in their catalogue critique now in preparation; the archive reference number is H0162.

¹Charles Baudelaire, Art in Paris 1845-1862: Salons and Other Exhibitions, translated by Jonathan Mayne, London, 1965, p. 30-31