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"A Dutch Canal" Oil Painting from The Circle of Aert van der Neer

ca. 1650

About the Item

'Dutch Canal' is an original oil painting by an artist in the school or circle of Dutch Golden Age painter Aert van der Neer. Based on the labels on the artwork, the painting has borne an attribution to Aert van der Neer since approximately the late 19th century. As is typical of works by van der Neer and his circle, it depicts a number of figures interacting within the landscape – rowing a boat, chatting at the edge of a private property, and walking through the woods. Indeed, this work is similar to a work with full attribution to van der Neer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled 'Landscape at Sunset" (17.190.11) which likewise features such staffage. Nonetheless, a full attribution to Aert van der Neer is here unfitting; van der Neer's landscapes are usually more moody and show special attention to the effects of light and atmosphere. Here, however, the sky is a bright and luminous blue like those seen in works by Jacob van Ruisdael or Meindert Hobbema. Regardless of attribution, the painting shows the skill of artists in the Dutch Golden Age and the tastes of patrons of that period. "Dutch canal," with its careful attention to detail and realism portrays a distinctly Dutch mode of ordering the landscape. According to Peter Sutton: "As no other people before them, the Dutch in the seventeenth century compiled a remarkably comprehensive record in paint of their land, people, and possessions. What nineteenth-century art historian like Eugene Fromentin called the 'probity' of Dutch art--its record of fact and compelling truth to life--was perhaps more clearly expressed in landscape than in any other genre; the Dutch, for all intents and purposes, invented the naturalistic landscape. ... Yet for all its inventory of fact and observation, Dutch landscape was neither a literal speculum naturae (mirror of reality) for a topographically exact traveler's journal. The Dutchman's painterly imagination reformed nature ... We no longer rest easy with uncomplicated notions of a naive Dutch realism chronicling the countryside with the literalness of a camera lens. Nor can we accept the view of Dutch landscape as a portrait of the land, unless one acknowledges the portraitist's license to editorialize, recast and flatter." Thus, despite the seemingly true-to-life naturalism of the Dutch landscape, Netherlandish artists reordered the landscape, aiming to fool and delight the eye. As artist Samuel van Hoogstraten said, painting should be "an image inspired by natural observation but altered and embellished so that it 'deceives' in an acceptable, pleasing, and praiseworthy way." 16 x 20 inches, canvas 23.63 x 27.75 inches, frame apparently unsigned plaque affixed to frame with title "A Dutch Canal" and attribution to Aert van der Neer, bottom center inscribed "Van de Neer" in pencil, on reverse of frame, upper right inscribed "17B" in pencil, on reverse of stretcher, upper left indecipherable label with red border on reverse of stretcher, upper left inscribed "A van der Neer" in pencil, on reverse of stretcher, upper right label with biography of Aert van der Neer on reverse of stretcher, bottom center Presented in a wood and composition frame with gold leaf finish. Overall good restored condition; relined; areas of retouching, especially in the sky; craquelure throughout; some planar distortion along bottom edge; some surface losses to frame.
  • Creation Year:
    ca. 1650
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 23.625 in (60.01 cm)Width: 27.75 in (70.49 cm)
  • Medium:
    Oil
  • Movement & Style:
    Old Masters
  • Circle Of:
    Aert Van Der Neer (1603 - 1677, Dutch)
  • Period:
    Mid-17th Century
  • Framing:
    Frame Included
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
    Overall good restored condition; relined; areas of retouching, especially in the sky; craquelure throughout; some planar distortion along bottom edge; some surface losses to frame.
  • Gallery Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 11484c1stDibs: LU605313406782
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