Barend Cornelis Koekkoek Dutch, 1803-1862

Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum), 18 May - 31 August 1997, no. 55
Kleef (Museum Haus Koekkoek), autumn 1997, no. 55

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek was by far the most applauded landscapist of his time and regarded as the founding father of Dutch romantic landscape painting.

Taught by his father the marine painter J.H. Koekkoek, Barend Cornelis specialised in landscapes. He concentrated on extensive wooded landscapes in summer and winter, a theme deducted from the four season series. This was a popular subject matter in the Golden Age, the main source of inspiration for nineteenth century artists.

In 1834 B.C. Koekkoek settled in Cleves, Germany, for the rest of his life. ‘Our fatherland boasts no rocks, waterfalls, high mountains or romantic valleys. Proud, sublime nature is not to be found in our land’. In Cleves he found the poetic elements of his ideal romantic landscape. In his footsteps, many artists travelled to the duke-town, seeking instruction from the great master at the academy he founded there in 1841.

Already in his time, B.C. Koekkoek’s paintings were already much sought after; King Willem II, Tsar Alexander II and King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia were serious collectors of his work.

The present lot, dated 1856, is an excellent example of B.C. Koekkoek’s mature Romanticism. This impressive painting depicts an overpowering winter landscape with a touch of the sublime, the confusing mixed emotion of excitement and fear while beholding an overwhelming natural phenomenon. The wood gatherers are reduced to a humble size, dominated by powerful nature.

This accent on emotional effect was the main feature in Romantic Art, as a reaction to the importance of Reason in the eighteenth  century Age of Enlightenment. Romantic artists longed to express the emotive evoking aspects as well as the supernatural in nature. Nature was considered to be a creation of God, and sometimes religious symbols like church ruins were used to accentuate this spiritual element.

The typical Romantic motif of a ruin is also to be found in this large, yet wonderfully detailed painting. This symbol of transcendence is here a silent witness of a long lost age, and gives the whole scene a serene atmosphere, enhanced by the soft glowing light of the late winter afternoon. This rare winter landscape, with its sparkling snow covered valley, shining even brighter against the dark tones of the figures and the ruin, can truly be seen as a masterpiece in Koekkoek’s oeuvre.