- 270
Gillis Neyts
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
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Description
- Gillis Neyts
- Horsemen entering the City of Antwerp
- Pen and brown ink, within a drawn framing line, on vellum;
signed, lower right: g. nijts. f;
bears early numbering in brown ink, verso: 3.6, and modern pencil numberings, lower margins: F27821 and BB1941 282
Provenance
Prince Wladimir Nikolaevitch Argoutinsky-Dolgoroukoff (L.2602d);
Arthur Feldmann, Brno,
sale, Lucerne, Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 28 June 1934, lot 1881 (unsold),
looted by the Gestapo in 1939;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 16 October 1946, in lot 49;
purchased at the sale by Lionel Robert Abel Smith,
by whose Estate sold, London, Sotheby's, 23 March 1972, lot 8;
F.C. Butôt, Sankt Gilgen;
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 6 November 1978, lot 39
purchased at the sale by the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels (L.260; inv. F 27821);
restituted to the heirs of Arthur Feldmann in 2015
Arthur Feldmann, Brno,
sale, Lucerne, Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 28 June 1934, lot 1881 (unsold),
looted by the Gestapo in 1939;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 16 October 1946, in lot 49;
purchased at the sale by Lionel Robert Abel Smith,
by whose Estate sold, London, Sotheby's, 23 March 1972, lot 8;
F.C. Butôt, Sankt Gilgen;
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 6 November 1978, lot 39
purchased at the sale by the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels (L.260; inv. F 27821);
restituted to the heirs of Arthur Feldmann in 2015
Exhibited
Salzburg, Museumpavillon in Mirabellgarten; Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum; and Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Niederländische Kunst aus dem Goldenen Jahrhundert, 1972-3, pp. 100-101, reproduced
Literature
P. Gustot, Gillis Neyts. Un Paysagiste Brabançon en vallée Mosane au XVIIe siècle, Namur 2008, pp. 154-5, no. D19
Catalogue Note
Neyts's highly distinctive, very minutely executed landscapes often include real topographical motifs, but frequently adapted to suit the artist's pictorial aims. Here, the spires of the churches of St. Michael, St. Paul and St. James the Great can be seen in the distance, and to the right is the Kattenberghof, a small castle not far from Antwerp, which was demolished in 1897. In reality, though, the Kattenberghof was somewhat further from the churches of the city centre, as is clear from the more topographically accurate depiction of the same location, now in the Lugt Collection.2 Another view of the same spot, seen from a slightly different angle, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.3
For a full account of the history of the Feldmann Collection, see the introduction before lot 11 in the catalogue of the 6 July 2005 Old Master Drawings sale at Sotheby's, London, when a substantial group of restituted drawings from the collection was offered for sale.4
1. The measurements given as 211 by 150 mm; other descriptions in this catalogue also contained inaccuracies
2. Gustot, op. cit., no. D17
3. Ibid., no. D18
4. In the pencil inscription lower right, the letters BB stand for 'Beschlagnahme Berlin', the whole inscription therefore signifying that this was item 282 among the confiscated works sent to Berlin.