Mountain Landscape with a View of the Loibl Pass

c. 1687 - c. 1690

Object data

pen and greyish-brown ink, over traces of graphite; framing lines in greyish-brown ink (upper and right border), graphite (left border) and dark brown ink (lower border)

height 231 mm × width 340 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso: upper centre, by the artist, in greyish-brown ink, de pas of deurgang op den Löivelberg; lower left, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, : A (?); below that, on a fragment of paper pasted on the sheet, by Feitama, in black ink, De pas of doorgang op den Loivelberg, door Albert Meyering, omtrent ao 1690
stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: Coat of arms with a Strasbourg lily, above letters WR

Provenance

…; ? posthumous sale of the artist, fl. 3, to Sybrand II Feitama (1694-1758), Amsterdam, 1715;¹ his sale, Amsterdam (B. de Bosch et al.), 16 October 1758 sqq., Album H, no. 70 (‘De Pas of doorgang, op den Loivelberg, omtrent Ao. 1690. h. 9, br. 13¾. d.’), with one other drawing, fl. 10, to the dealer P. IJver, Amsterdam;² ...; ? anonymous sale, Amsterdam (C. Ploos van Amstel et al.), 30 October 1780, Album B, no. 115 (‘Een gezigt in het Leuvelgebergten, met de pen en geele Oostind. Inkt gewassen, door Albert Meyering’), fl. 10, to Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819, Amsterdam);³ ...; acquired by the museum (L. 2228), by 1872

Object number: RP-T-00-199

The artist

Albert Meyering (Amsterdam 1645 - Amsterdam 1714)

Albert Meyering (Meyeringh) was baptized on 24 September 1645 in Amsterdam’s Oude Lutherse Kerk (Old Lutheran Church).⁴ His parents were the painter Frederik Meyeringh (1608-1669) and Lysbeth Claesz. (?-1652) from Antwerp. His brother Hendrick Meyering (1641-1687) worked as painter and art dealer.

Albert was trained by his father. On 2 January 1672, he was still in Amsterdam, but soon afterwards he must have left the city, like many artists who escaped the aftermath of that disaster year (‘rampjaar’). Later the same year he was in Paris, and by 1673 he may have joined his friend Johannes Glauber (1656-c. 1726) in Lyon.⁵ According to Houbraken, they travelled together in Italy,⁶ where Glauber is documented in Rome (1675-76), Padua (1676) and Venice (1677-78). From the evidence of a drawing by Meyering in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (inv. no. 84 kl 2),⁷ he must also have travelled as far south as Naples. Further travels are documented by inscribed drawings recording sites in Trieste and Carinthia (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-00-199), Cleve,⁸ Brussels⁹ and Antwerp.¹⁰ A stay in Hamburg – where Glauber is documented from 1679 to 1684 – although not mentioned by Houbraken, is certain, based on other inscribed topographical drawings by Meyering, including inv. no. RP-T-1881-A-111 and two drawings in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. nos. 22149 and 22150).¹¹ He may also have accompanied Glauber to Copenhagen, where Glauber spent six months during this period in the service of the Danish Count Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve (1638-1704).

Meyering is recorded back in Amsterdam only on 20 June 1687, when he was present at the execution of his deceased brother’s will. He probably returned to the Netherlands earlier, however, for he apparently joined Glauber in producing paintings (c. 1685-87) for the palace of Soestdijk, near Hilversum. On 7 August 1688, residing in Amsterdam on the Kloveniers Burgwal, Meyering married Maria Schuurmans (c. 1645-1720), widow of a certain Niclaas Koninck.¹² Some two weeks later, on 18 August, he became a citizen of Amsterdam.

Meyering belonged to the third generation of Dutch Italianate artists. As a painter, he produced classical landscapes in the manner of Gaspar Dughet (1615-1675), and as a draughtsman he is known for his topographical views. The strongest influence on his work, however, was that of his friend and travelling companion Glauber. Few of Meyering’s works are dated, mostly paintings from the 1680s, such as two examples that appeared on the Cologne art market in 1995 ¹³ and 1997,¹⁴ which are dated 1682 and 1684, respectively. His graphic oeuvre, reflecting the influence of Glauber, consists of twenty-six etchings, some after his own paintings. Meyering had two pupils: Jacob Appel I (1680-1751) and the Hamburg-born painter Jacob Stockmann (c. 1670-1743).

At the time of his burial in the Oude Lutherse Kerk, Amsterdam, on 2 July 1714, he was living on the Utrechtse Straat between the Keizergracht and Kerkstraat.¹⁵ His wife, Maria Schuurmans, was buried in the same church on 22 May 1720.¹⁶

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III (1721), p. 210; J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, 4 vols., Paris 1753-64, III (1760), pp. 179-80; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1843), p. 224; [O.C. Gaedechens (ed.)], Hamburgisches Künstler-Lexikon: Die bildenden Künstler, Hamburg 1854, p. 167; P. Scheltema, Aemstel’s oudheid of gedenkwaardigheden van Amsterdam, 7 vols., Amsterdam 1855-85, IV (1861), p. 67; A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aantekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten (II)’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), p. 231; A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, I (1915), pp. 334, 343-47; VII (1922), p. 151; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 158; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXIV (1930), p. 499 (entry by M.D. H[enkel?]); H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1942, pp. 28, 60, 167, 216, 221, 301; A. Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome, 1675-1725, Assen 1973, pp. 19-27; C. Kämmerer, Die klassisch-heroische Landschaft in der niederländischen Landschaftsmalerei, 1675-1750, Berlin 1975 (PhD diss., Freie Universität Berlin), pp. 41, 45, 46, 52, 101-7; W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York and elsewhere 1978-, VII (1978), pp. 169-94, nos. 1-26; S. Alsteens and H. Buijs, Paysages de France dessinés par Lambert Doomer et les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Paris 2008, pp. 208, 212 (n. 110); P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 541; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, VXXXIX (2016), p. 290 (entry by I.M. Veldman); http://www.vondel.humanities.uva.nl/ecartico/persons/5235

Entry

According to the artist’s inscription on the verso, this is a view of the Loibl Pass, north of Ljubljana in the Carinthian Alps on the border of Austria and present-day Slovenia. In the seventeenth century, it was a regular trade route between the Carinthian capital city of Klagenfurt and the north-eastern Italian seaport of Trieste. As early as 1560, the journey through the pass was facilitated by a tunnel through the mountains.

Had the present drawing not been inscribed, it would not have been possible to identify the site, since it lacks any recognizable landmark unless one assumes that the shed to the left is the entrance to the tunnel. (For a rare representation of the latter, see a print by Andreas Troost (active c. 1686) after Johann Weikhard von Valvasor (1641-1693), published in the latter’s Topographia Ducatus Carnioliae modernae das ist Controsee aller Stätt, Märckht, Clöster und Schlösser, wie sie anietzo stehen in dem Hertzogthumb Crain (n.p., 1679), no. 313.) Though the delicate penmanship, which appears to be done in the studio, and the use of Dutch paper suggest a date after Meyering’s return to Amsterdam by 1687,¹⁷ the underlying passages in graphite, barely visible, might well have been done on the spot.

That Meyering visited the region is well documented by topographical drawings. Folio 32 of the 1746 inventory of the Feitama collection included two views of the shores of Trieste, as well as two views of Styria.¹⁸ Moreover, a Mountain Landscape near Völkermarkt in Carinthia is recorded as having been in the collection of Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930),¹⁹ and a view in the Tyrol, possibly depicting the parish church of Serravalle (a settlement in Ala in the Trentino), appeared in the Van Lapro sale.²⁰ Meyering is reported by Houbraken to have visited Italy together with his friend Johannes Glauber (1646-c. 1726). Since Glauber is documented in Venice in 1677-78, a visit to Trieste would be not such a detour. For their return journey north, the two artists might have travelled from Trieste via the Loibl Pass. The repoussoir figure of the seated draughtsman in the left foreground might even depict Glauber.

The drawing paired with the present sheet in the Feitama sale was a Landscape with the River Brenta between Padua and Venice, now in the Special Collections, University of Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-1659).²¹ According to Feitama, that drawing was also bought by him at Meyering’s sale (‘Een gezicht aan de revier de Brenta, gekocht als voren A° 1715’).²²

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

Citation

A. Stefes, 2019, 'Albert Meyering, Mountain Landscape with a View of the Loibl Pass, c. 1677 - c. 1678', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.55816

(accessed 10 November 2024 17:49:48).