WILLEM DE HEUSCH | AN ELEGANTLY DRESSED COUPLE ON HORSEBACK ON A PATH WITH OTHER TRAVELLERS IN A SOUTHERN LANDSCAPE

With P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1952;

F.C. Butôt, Sankt Gilgen, Austria;

From whom acquired.

Amsterdam, Galerie P. de Boer, Zomertentoonstelling van oude schilderijen, 4 July – 24 August 1952, no. 27;

Bolsward, Stadhuis, Italië in de toets der gouden eeuw, Summer 1964, no. 24;

Salzburg, Museumpavillon im Mirabellgarten, 12 July – 12 September 1972; Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, 26 September 1972 – 14 January 1973, Niederländische Kunst aus dem Goldenen Jahrhundert, unnumbered;

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Hollandse en Vlaamse Kunst uit de 17e eeuw, 16 February – 1 April 1973, unnumbered;

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 2.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

H.J. Ronday (ed.), Italië in de toets der gouden eeuw, exh. cat., Bolsward 1964, p. 37, cat. no. 24, reproduced fig. 16;

L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den großen Meistern. Landschaften und Stilleben, Brunswick 1969, p. 267, reproduced fig. 256;

Niederländisches Kunst aus dem Goldenen Jahrhundert--Gemälde und Zeichnungen im Umkreis grosser Meister aus der Sammlung F.C. Butôt, exh. cat., Salzburg 1972, pp. 52–53, reproduced in colour;

Hollandse en Vlaamse kunst uit de 17e eeuw: hoogtepunten van minder bekende meesters: schilderijen en tekeningen uit de verzameling F.C. Butôt, exh. cat., Rotterdam 1973, pp. 54–55, reproduced;

L.J. Bol, G. Keyes and F.C. Butôt, Netherlandish paintings and drawings from the collection of F.C. Butôt by little-known and rare masters of the seventeenth century, London 1981, p. 162, cat. no. 64, reproduced in colour;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 3, Landschaften und Seestücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2001, p. 94, cat. no. 19, reproduced in colour;

G. Keyes, in A.K. Wheelock et al., Masters of Dutch painting: the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit 2004, p. 98, reproduced fig. 1;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 32, cat. no. 2, reproduced in colour.

This is a beautiful example of Dutch Italianate landscape painting - a sub-genre that was developed during the 17th century by artists such as Jan Both, De Heusch’s teacher, who spent time in Rome absorbing the influence of Claude Lorrain’s paintings and producing his own landscapes bathed in golden, Mediterranean light. In its composition and in the forms of the trees and warm early evening light, this painting clearly reflects De Heusch's debt to his teacher.

Though the painting is undated, it is analogous with the De Heusch's painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is of a similar format, subject and style, and has even been proposed as a companion painting to the present panel.[1] That work is thought to date to circa 1650, after De Heusch's return from Italy, but in both paintings the artist has signed with a 'G', indicating the use of the Italian spelling of his name, Guglielmo.

1 https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/italian-landscape-47958