Attributed to Philips Koninck

Colonel Lionel Philips, Ipswich;
With David Koetser, Zurich;
Where acquired by the present owner (as Jan Vermeer van Haarlem).

In fair overall condition. The canvas has a firm recent relining and a 2 cm. extension to the left edge. The paint surface is dirty and the varnish slightly discoloured. There is an old irregular repaired horizontal tear running across the canvas two-thirds of the way down. Inspection under ultra-violet light is hindered by an uneven varnish but reveals repairs to the tear, scattered retouchings in the sky and around an area of damage in the corner upper right, to the horizon and to an area along the extension join. The paint surface is in moderate overall condition and has suffered some wear in the middle distance. Offered in a Dutch-style ebonized frame with ripple mouldings.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The work of Philips Koninck is very close to that of Jan Vermeer II van Haarlem (Haarlem 1628 – 1691), to whom this work has previously been attributed, and a distinction is often difficult to discern.¹ Here, however, the curving form of the landscape, the short dabs of paint used to depict the foliage, and the way the light falls on particular points in the landscape, is closer in style to works by Koninck that those by Vermeer. Philips Koninck was responsible more than any other painter for developing the tonal panoramic landscape. While these sometimes incorporate identifiable topographic elements, generally they are capricci, exploiting the imagined high viewpoint of a dune or the high ground where the edge of the Hoge Veluwe overlooks the floodplain of the Rhine to make plausible the extended panorama over low-lying ground incorporating rivers, towns, estuaries and in some cases distant sea. Jan Vermeer II of Haarlem was clearly influenced by Koninck's panoramas.  

This picture is sold with a copy of a written certificate from Laurens J. Bol, dated 11 November 1978, attributing the picture to Jan Vermeer II or his son Jan Vermeer III (Haarlem 1656 – 1705). He notes the difficulty of distinguishing between the paintings of father and son.

1. For a discussion of this problem, see L. J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den grossen Meistern, Brunswick 1969, pp. 217–18. See also G. Gordon on the Vermeer of Haarlem family, in The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 32, p. 270.