By Evert Moll
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
Evert Moll (Dutch, 1878–1955) Rotterdam harbor painting, a signed original oil on canvas: a steamship, tugboats and barges in Dutch Impressionist brushwork. Signed bottom left.
A large steamship dominates the right of the composition, smoke drifting from its funnel through the rigging. Tugboats and a sailing barge work the choppy water around it, and a laden barge crosses the foreground. Beyond, the quays and buildings of the port of Rotterdam run along the horizon beneath a broad sky of white and grey cloud. This is the working harbor Moll made his own. It is painted with the quick, broken brushwork and touches of pure color that characterize his marine scenes, with orange, blue and green flickering across the water.
The painting is undated. Moll became best known for his views of the port of Rotterdam and the shipping on the Nieuwe Maas painted in the 1920s and 1930s, and this harbor view probably dates from that period. The reverse confirms a pre-war date. The stretcher carries a label of Kunsthandel Gebroeders Koch giving the firm’s Rotterdam address on the Noordblaak, in the city centre which was destroyed in May 1940, alongside its Hague address on the Hoogstraat. The dealership also appears in the provenance of a Moll painting...
Category
1920s Impressionist Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Paint, Oil