Salomon van Ruysdael Naarden 1600/3 - 1670 Haarlem

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Description

Salomon van Ruysdael
a still life with a cockerel, two lapwings, a duck and other birds, all on a stone ledge
signed and dated (strengthened) on the ledge lower right: SvR (in compendium) uysdael/1660
oil on panel

Provenance

With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam;
With J. Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1926 (no. 1814);
C.W.F.P. Baron Sweerts de Landas Wyborgh, Rotterdam, by 1927;
With P. de Boer, Amsterdam (according to a label on the reverse).

Exhibited

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Catalogus van de Kersttentoonstelling in het Museum Boymans, 23 December 1927-16 January 1928, p. 17, cat. no. 12, reproduced plate IX;
Amsterdam, Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker, Het Stilleven, 18 February-19 March 1933, cat. no. 271, reproduced no. 30;
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Catalogus van de Tentoonstelling van 115 Stillevens 1480-1933, 1 April-23 April 1933, p. 27, cat. no. 82;
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Meesterwerken uit vier eeuwen, 25 June-15 October 1938, p. 33, cat. no. 135;
Paris, Grand Palais, unidentified exhibition, 1972, cat. no. 36 (according to a label on the reverse).

Literature

D. Hannema, Flitsen uit mijn leven als verzamelaar en museumdirecteur, Rotterdam 1973, pp. 50-1;
W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1975, p. 160, cat. no. 609, reproduced plate 53, fig. 76;
J. Foucart, 'Une nature morte de Salomon van Ruysdael au Louvre', in: La Revue du Louvre, 17 (1967), p. 158, under note 7.

Catalogue Note

This is a rare example of a still life by Van Ruysdael, who foremostly painted river landscapes and marines. In his monograph, Stechow records only seven of these still lifes, all with birds and all datable to the period 1659-1662 (see Literature below, pp. 160-61, cat. nos. 606A-612).

The reverse bears a copy of a certificate by Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot, dated November 1926 (no. 3427), confirming the attribution to Van Ruysdael.

In his memoires the former director of the Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Dr. D. Hannema (see Literature below) recalls an anecdote from when the painting was in the collection of Baron Sweerts de Landas Wyborgh, acquired through Hannema: 'May 1940: a part of Rotterdam is in flames; many houses on the Haringvliet have already been destroyed. Mr Sweerts is not present, but his housekeeper runs out of the house, totally perplexed, with the still life of birds under her arms. She runs down the Haringvliet and puts the painting against the mill at the Oostplein. Five days later she suddenly remembers where she has left the painting. She goes and has a look: it is still in the same place as she left it!'.