Aert van der Neer

With H. Terry-Engell, London, 1966-67;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 11 December 1974, lot 103;
With Alan Jacobs Gallery, London, 1975-76;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 30 March 1979, lot 79;
Private collection, Germany, by 1984.

London, H. Terry-Engell, Winter Exhibition, 1966/7, no. ii (reproduced in the catalogue);
London, Alan Jacobs Gallery, Winter Exhibition, 1975/6;
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Hollandische Malerei aus Berliner Privatbesitz, 1984, no. 45;
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, on loan, by 1986 until 2000.

Advertisement in The Burlington Magazine, October 1966, reproduced plate XLIII;
I. Becker, in Hollandische Malerei aus Berliner Privatbesitz, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 1984, cat. no. 45;
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Köln. Vollständiges Verzeichnis der Gemäldesammlung, Cologne 1986, p. 65, reproduced p. 206, fig. 370;
Niederlandische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts aus Budapest, exhibition catalogue, Cologne/Utrecht 1987, p. 27, reproduced in colour plate 6;
A. Repp-Eckert, Niederlandische Landschaftmalerei von 1580 bis 1680 (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Koln - Bildhefte zur Sammlung, 4), Cologne 1989, pp. 38-9, reproduced plate 21;
W. Schulz, Aert van der Neer, Doornspijk 2002, pp. 264-5, no. 542, reproduced fig. 141 and in colour plate 30. 

The actual painting is a lot less red and warmer and more natural in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel, which consists of two horizontal planks, is sound and bevelled to the reverse. The paint surface is under a very dirty and discoloured layer of varnish. The paint surface is secure and especially the impasto in the trees is nicely preserved. A few retouchings can be observed in the sky and along the join. Inspection under UV light is partially impeded by the varnish, but does reveal additional scattered retouchings in the sky and strengthening of the outlines in the houses and figures. Offered in a black wood frame with a gilt fillet, with minor worm damage.
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Aert van de Neer is famous for his poetic landscapes glimmering in dusk or moonlight. These sometimes depict country retreats to which rich merchants from the rapidly growing Dutch cities liked to retire as they were enjoined to do in contemporary literature to enjoy the idyllic rural solitude of the Buitenplaatsen celebrated in contemporary prints and poetry. This impression is reinforced by the elegantly dressed couple in conversation near the house. Van der Neer is supposed to have painted several views of this house; Hofstede de Groot described a second and broader view.¹

This picture is a relatively early work, datable to the mid-1640s.  A comparable painting, dated 1642, with a similar tonality and chromatic range, and of a similar, though reversed, diagonal compositional scheme including a similar clump of trees, is in the Städel in Frankfurt.²  Dr. Wolfgang Schulz dates the present picture a little later than the Städel one, to circa 1643-47.

1. C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonne..., vol. VII, London 1923, p. 366, no. 15.
2. See J. Sander & B. Brinkmann, Niederlandische Gemalde vor 1800 im Stadel, Frankfurt 1995, p. 43, reproduced in colour plate 97.
3. See under Literature.