Govaert Flinck

Private collection, Scotland, 19th century;

Private collection, Switzerland, 1947;

With Kunsthandel Katz, Basel, 1947 and until 1948;

With Drey Gallery, New York, 1969;

With Spencer A. Samuels Gallery, New York, by 1983 and until at least 1987;

From whom acquired by a private collector, Boston;

By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 15 January 1993, lot 52;

Where acquired by Otto Naumann, New York;

From whom acquired.

Basel, Kunsthandel Katz, Rembrandt-Austellung, 24 July – 30 September 1948, no. 15.

J.G. van Gelder, 'Nieuwe werken van Rembrandt,' in Oud Holland, vol. 62, no. 6, 1947, pp. 179–81, reproduced figs. 3 and 4 (as Rembrandt);

J.G. van Gelder, 'An Unknown Landscape by Rembrandt,' in Burlington Magazine, vol. 90, no. 538, January 1948, pp. 18–21, reproduced figs. 17 and 18 (as Rembrandt);

Rembrandt-Austellung, exh. cat., Basel 1948, pp. 13 and 19, no. 15, reproduced (as Rembrandt);

A.M. Frankfurter, 'Rembrandt for the Jubilee,' in Art News, October 1949, p. 30, reproduced (as Rembrandt);

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. V, Landau 1983, pp. 3059 and 3063, n. 25, reproduced p. 3067 (as School of Rembrandt);

C. Schneider, 'A New Look at The Landscape with an Obelisk,' in Fenway Court: Report of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1984, p. 20 note 35 (as perhaps by Flinck);

J. Foucart, Musée du Louvre: Nouvelles acquisitions du Départment des Peintures (1983–1986), Paris 1987, reproduced p. 73 (as Flinck?);

J. Bruyn, 'Review of Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler II,' in Oud Holland, vol. 101, no. 3, 1987, p. 226, reproduced fig. 2 (as Flinck);

C. Schneider, Rembrandt's Landscapes, New Haven and London 1990, pp. 132 and 136–137, reproduced fig. 105 (as Attributed to Flinck);

T. van der Molen, Govert Flinck 1615–1660, Amsterdam 2025, p. 240, no. 59, reproduced in colour (as Flinck, circa 1638, current whereabouts unknown).

This moody landscape, dominated by a dramatically illuminated, crumbling tower at right, belongs to a small group of works traditionally attributed to Rembrandt, but since the 1980s, given to his gifted pupil Govaert Flinck. Two paintings from the group—Landscape with an Obelisk (stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990) and Landscape with Bridge and Ruins (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 1985 82)—are signed and dated 1638 and 1637, respectively. Clearly Rembrandtesque in inspiration, the present painting almost certainly also dates from the late 1630s, a few years after Flinck left Rembrandt’s workshop. Like many of Rembrandt’s pupils, Flinck closely emulated his teacher’s methods and style, so successfully, in fact, that according to an early biographer, Flinck’s works were occasionally sold as Rembrandt’s own.