JAN VAN GOYEN (1596-1656) THE RIVER SHORE
Oil on panel: Signed in monogram and dated 'VG 1651' (lower centre, on the boat)
Provenance: The Toledo Museum of Art (Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund). Edward Drummond Libbey, by whom gifted to the Toledo Museum of Art in 1925. Dr. Nicolaas Beets, Amsterdam, 1921. With Galerie Pro Arte, Basel, 1920.
Literature: C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seventeenth century based on the work of John Smith, London, 1907-1928, VIII, no. 498a. H.U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656, Amsterdam, 1973, II, no. 553, p. 255. The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 70, pl. 114. J.D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 150. B. Broos, Great Dutch Paintings from America, exhibition catalogue, The Hague, 1990, p. 106. |
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Apart from being an art dealer and erstwhile investor in tulips Jan van Goyen was also one of the most influential landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The present picture was painted towards the end of his artistic career in 1651 when he began to use thin dark areas where the grain of the oak is visible, and fewer colours, mainly ochres and umbers, to produce his unique tonality. The under drawing was sketched out in walnut ink, which is visible in the boat detail.
Although van Goyen was a fairly prolific artist, this is one of only sixty-two paintings that are known from historical museum collections, according to the Getty Provenance Index Database of Public Collections. This painting (Public Collection Record 10215) was given to the Toledo Museum of Art in 1925 by the glass industrialist Edward Drummond Libbey, where it remained for eighty-nine years..
Eward Libbey and Wife, Florence Libbey helped found the Toledo Museum of Art, and was its main benefactor for many years. This van Goyen represents a rare opportunity to acquire a painting with an exceptional museum provenance. |
