- 68
Jacob Cats Altona 1741 - 1799 Amsterdam
Description
- Jacob Cats
- an extensive winter landscape, with figures on a frozen river leading to open water in the distance
- signed and dated in brown ink, verso: J: Cats inv et fec/1798-
pen and brown ink and brown and gray wash, over black chalk, within brown ink framing lines
Provenance
Jhr. Johann Goll van Franckenstein, his numbering in brown ink, verso: N.3862. (L.2987);
Jan Six;
his sale, Amsterdam, Frederick Muller, 17 October 1928, lot 462;
sale, The Hague, Glerum Veilingen, 25 November 1991, lot 49
Catalogue Note
Landscapes by Jacob Cats are by no means rare, but hardly any of the artist's known works approach this in terms of quality: in its large scale, atmospheric winter composition, distinguished provenance and exceptional state of preservation, it is unquestionably one of the artist's finest surviving drawings. The only roughly comparable work to have appeared on the market in recent years is the 1791 winter landscape sold, New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2001, lot 166.
Born in Altona, near Hamburg, at a young age Cats was brought by his parents to live in Amsterdam. In early 1759, he found employment in the wall-decoration workshop of a certain Jan Hendrik Troost van Groenendoelen, and in May 1762 he set up his own business, producing, with considerable success, the painted wall-hangings that were so popular in Amsterdam interiors of the period. Eventually, however, this fashion began to decline, and Cats then turned his hand to the production of highly finished landscape drawings and watercolours such as this, an art in which he became the leading figure in late-18th century Holland.