THE TRUST

Dutch Landscapes

Exhibition Highlights

Aelbert Cuyp (1620-91), An Evening Landscape with Figures and Sheep , c.1655-60

This is a characteristic imaginary landscape of Cuyp’s maturity, depicting a terrain reminiscent of the Rhine between Nijmegen and Cleves. The most direct source for the artist’s style is unquestionably the work of Jan Both. The pattern of trees against the sky in Cuyp’s painting exactly follows Both’s model, except in being more simplified in design and more freely handled in the application of paint. A comparison with Jan der Heyden’s A Country House on the Vliet near Delft of exactly the same date reveals the mannerism of Cuyp’s landscapes: the decorative touch, the low but far-off perspective suggestive of a distant dream, and the contrived additive composition.

Aelbert Cuyp (1620-91), The Passage Boat , c .1650

A passage boat, or ferry, was a common sight in the 17th- century . This one is probably the regular passenger service between Dordrecht and Rotterdam, part of the network of waterborne public transport. The vessel is a pleyt , a single-mast craft designed to carry passengers slowly in calm inland waterways. The two pleyten here are made to look like successive views of the same vessel and show how the sail is lowered as the boat drifts towards the jetty. A bugler and drummer announce the arrival of the service, and a man fends off with a bargepole.

The drama of presentation here does not just depend upon the isolation of the ferry and its scale. The water-level viewpoint makes the hull stand out against the horizon, which glows like a halo as the setting sun catches the mist coming off the sea; it also pushes the mast up into the clouds. The clouds suggest the forms of angels or zephyrs surrounding the light of the sky. This is probably intended as a private symbol of salvation, of the type that a spiritual person reads into the ordinary fabric of the world. It would certainly be unlikely for a contemporary viewer to look at this boat without noticing that the mast and sprit-pole make a cross.

Jan van der Heyden (1637 – 1712), A Country House on the Vliet near Delft , c.1660

This is a fashionable part of Holland in the 17th century: a navigable canal or river with a well-kept towpath and a considerable volume of freight traffic. Lining the water are houses with plots of land extending into the flat, low-lying, fertile, reclaimed land. There is an alternation of elegant farmhouses and buitenplaatsen (country houses), like the one nearer to us. This house has a stone gate and a topiary hedge with claire-vues and an avenue of trees. Heyden’s image is notable for its restrained depiction of evening light, with more white than gold in the spectrum and just a hint of pink in some of the clouds. But it is the vivid naturalism of the scene, with its matter-of-fact viewpoint, recording a public thoroughfare, which so remarkably anticipates the landscapes of the Impressionists. It is also possible that Constable had seen this painting when he painted his Scene on a Navigable River in 1816–17.

Meyndert Hobbema (1638 – 1709), A Watermill beside a Woody Lane , 1665 or 1668

In this engaging landscape the artist transforms a mundane view of everyday life into a charming scene of fairytale innocence. The composition is constructed to lead the viewer’s eye easily through and across it. The winding path on the right curves around away from the watermill, teasing attention away from the main motif. Watermills appear in about 35 paintings by Hobbema, the majority of which are variations on drawings that he or other artists (such as his teacher Jacob van Ruisdael) made from actual buildings.

Despite this repetition of the motif, each depiction of a mill by Hobbema differs in the angle that is presented as well as in the mood of the scene. This particular mill, which appears well worn and in need of a new roof, recurs in other works by the artist and may be based on a specific type which he had seen and studied in Deventer in the province of Overijssel. The predominant use of an orange and brown palette is typical of the artist and lends the painting an appealing brightness. Figures inhabit this idyllic space; a man walks down the path, a woman and child sit to the side of it, and a man – possibly the mill owner – crosses a bridge to enter the mill. These distinct characters blend seamlessly with their surroundings and harmoniously interact with nature. Like Jacob van Ruisdael and , Hobbema presents a perfect vision of his homeland, but with his distinctive, somewhat eccentric, flavour.

Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1586 – 1667), Shepherds with their Flocks in a Landscape with Roman Ruins , c.1620 The early date of this work is suggested by comparison with a similar work in the , which is signed and dated 1620. The market for small-scale Roman landscapes with a figure narrative was created by two artists of exceptional international fame, Adam Elsheimer and Paulus Bril. All three artists set out their landscapes like a stage, with every element seeming to lie parallel or perpendicular to the picture plane. The alternation of episodes from one side to the other as the eye ‘zig-zags’ into the distance enlivens what is essentially a vista towards a central vanishing point.

Though a brightly coloured and light-filled scene, Poelenburgh’s imagery draws heavily on the sinister and sepulchral aspect of the Roman rubble-scape. The houses to the left grow out of the ruined Roman arches, which themselves rest on monstrous rock formations. Similar human termite hills appear in the distance; the boy in the left foreground appears to have emerged from an open grave. This is certainly an imaginary view, but the fountain to the left was designed by Giacomo della Porta and installed in the Campo Vaccino in 1593 to serve the cattle market. The figures similarly have one foot in reality: some recognisable Roman nobles and shepherds in the background, and a couple in the foreground resembling Mary and Joseph preparing to flee to Egypt.

Jacob van Ruisdael ( c.1628/9-82), Evening landscape: A Windmill by a Stream , 1650s

The vast expanse of sky dominates the composition, with its ominous clouds rolling over the carefully constructed scene below. When Constable saw this painting on display at the Royal Academy in 1821, he is said to have admired the ‘acres of sky expressed’. The scene reflects mankind’s dependence upon nature, but the main message lies in the prominence of the windmill – an enduring symbol of the Dutch Republic which played a significant role in the new country’s industry and resulting wealth.

Although only in his twenties when he painted this work, Ruisdael seems to be honing his skills by repeating a landscape that he had created when aged 18: Windmill by a Country Road . The location depicted in both works has not been identified; it may be a specific place, but is more likely to be an idealised landscape constructed out of various sketches and studies, which Ruisdael would have made outdoors in the area around . Ruisdael appears to have considered such sketches as working drawings, with the result that familiar motifs recur in many of his finished paintings.

The greatest difference in the two paintings occurs in the sky. In the decade between the two compositions, Ruisdael perfected his ability to create dramatic visual tension, so that the heavy clouds in this painting imbue the scene with character and emotion. This work has been placed in the mid-to-late 1650s on the evidence of the sophistication of handling and the unyielding, harsh colours which define the artist’s work of this period.

Willem van de Velde II (1633 – 1707), A Calm: A States Yacht Under Sail Close to the Shore, with many other Vessels , c.1655

Van de Velde’s paintings from the early 1650s include many that depict perfectly calm seas with a dense arrangement of ships. The type was invented by marine painters of the previous generation, in particular Jan van de Cappelle, and would seem to depict the ’ inland sea, the Zuider Zee, which included many of the most important Dutch ports – , Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Kampen – and where large numbers of ships might lie at anchor in relative safety.

Though the weather conditions might be studied from life, the particular variety of shipping in such close proximity looks imaginary. It is tempting to read both images as a ‘Great Republic of Vessels’ with every type, size and function of shipping peaceably coexisting under the protection of the senatorial government yacht.

The ships in question can be identified through the comparison with the drawings of Willem van de Velde the Elder. To the left of the yacht is a pont in the foreground, behind this a kaag and hoekers in the distance. Reading to the right from the yacht is a kaag, two smalschepen , a hoeker next to a Pont and a weyschuit in the right foreground.

In the lower part of this painting the boats, ripples and sand are beautifully unified in a close, grey-brown tonal range. This is a perfect example of ‘going with the grain’, an effect whereby the paint follows and suggests the grain of the wood panel while at the same time evoking the clinker boats and ripples of water. The sky contains thicker paint, purer white and brighter blue than any tonal painting, and yet colour and tone are controlled in such a way as to retain an effect of atmospheric unity. By this means the viewer is made to feel that there is a veil of moist, sunlit air between their eye and every surface in the painting.