Paulus Constantijn la Fargue

Private collection, Switzerland;
Alfred Brod, 1961.

Probably Vienna, unidentified exhibition, circa 1937 (as by Jan van der Heyden; old photo recorded in the RKD; see fig. 1);
London, Alfred Brod Gallery, Annual Autumn Exhibition of Paintings of Old Dutch & Flemish Masters,  5 October  - 4 November 1961, no. 56;
New York, Finch College 1966, no. 24 (listed as a promised gift to the Finch College Museum of Art, according to a annotated copy in the Frick Art Reference Library);
New Orleans 1997, no. 32;
Baltimore 1999, no. 31 (all the above as by Emanuel Murant).

London Alfred Brod Gallery, Annual Autumn Exhibition of Paintings of Old Dutch & Flemish Masters, 5 October  - 4 November 1961, cat. no. 56;
New York, Finch College 1966, cat. no. 24, reproduced;
New Orleans 1997, pp. 79-80, cat. no. 32, reproduced;
Baltimore 1999, p. 73, cat. no. 31, reproduced (all the above as by Emanuel Murant).

Canvas has an old relining. This picture is in very good condition, with fresh coloration and a fresh clean varnish. Under ultraviolet light there are only a few very tiny scattered retouches in the sky that are not visible to the naked eye. The picture can be hung in its current state. In a black carved wooden frame.
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Although until recently considered a work by the 17th-century artist Emanuel Murant, this luminous cityscape has now been correctly attributed to the 18th-century painter and draftsman Paulus Constantijn La Fargue. 

La Fargue was born into an artistic family in The Hague in 1729. His siblings Karel, Maria Margaretha, Jacob Elias and Isaac Lodewijk were all painters. Paul Constantijn La Fargue initially made wallpaper and worked on behalf of the Hague art dealer Gerard Huet. Later he specialized in drawing and painting cityscapes and landscapes, primarily in The Hague and Rotterdam until 1770. After this year he painted in and around Delft, Haarlem, Leiden and Amsterdam. He also gained fame through his copies of Old Masters, including those of Jacob van Ruisdael. Besides landscapes he also painted historical images, portraits and genre works, and was a prolific draftsman as well.

The site for this peaceful and calm village scene has now been identified, for which we are grateful to Charles Dumas, formerly at the RKD. The painting represents a view in the village of Rijnsburg, a community situated to the west of Leiden near Katwijk, not far from the North Sea. Rijnsburg was famous for being Baruch Spinoza’s residence for some time in the 17th century. The view shows an alley known as the Pijlsteeg (later known as the Tramstaart) in Rijnsburg, with to the right the Rentmeestershuis of the Knighthood of Holland, the tower of the Abbey Church and the perimeter wall of the Beguinage. The Abbey Church dates from the 12th Century and is the only remainder of what once was the most important all-female abbey in Holland; founded in the beginning of the 12^th Century by Petronilla van Saksen, the convent only admitted ladies of noble descent, a policy that strongly aided its financial position. The abbey was almost completely destroyed in 1574 save for the southern Roman tower, depicted here, which still stands today.

There are other examples of the composition by La Fargue known, and in fact this version has been in the past identified with a picture known from a photograph taken in circa 1937 (see fig. 1).  In that picture, there were a number of differences from the present composition; there are tree tops above the houses at left and in the lower foreground we see a horseman, a donkey and a dog in the foreground, as well as many other figures.  None of these numerous differences were visible in the picture while it was in the Weldon collection, which has led to the speculation that these were added at some point after the photograph was taken.  A recent cleaning of the Weldon picture has removed two small figures in the middle distance— which were not seen in the 1937 photograph—but Fred Meijer of the RKD continues to believe that this painting and the much overpainted painting (fig. 1) are one and the same.  The lush and varied cloud formations in the current picture in particular would appear also to be missing from the earlier black and white photo.  Therefore, the relationship of these two pictures remains, thus, unclear.

Two other works showing the same street are known by the painter, one painted and one drawn. The signed painting shows the same view populated with numerous figures, and was sold at auction in Bern in 1967. ¹ A lovely watercolor drawing dated 1764, which was formerly in the Hans van Leeuwen-collection, was subsequently sold at Christie’s Amsterdam in 1992 (fig. 2).

We are grateful to Charles Dumas for his help in cataloguing this lot, identifying the view and for suggesting an attribution to La Fargue on the basis of digital photos. We would also like to thank Fred Meijer for his assistance. 

 

1.  Oil on panel, 53,5 x 65 cm.; sale Bern, Dobiaschofsky, 26 October 1967, lot 259.