Object data
pen and brown and some grey ink, with grey wash; framing lines in black ink
height 200 mm × width 253 mm
Jan Hackaert
River Landscape with Rapids and Distant Mountains
Amsterdam, c. 1658 - c. 1670
Inscriptions
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inscribed on verso: lower left, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 5 X 5; below that, in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand, in graphite or pencil, ƒ, amended in brown ink, 80; below that, by Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein, in dark brown ink, N 2370 (L. 2987)
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stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: none
Condition
Light-brown stains, apparently suffered from dampness; faded; some thin spots
Provenance
…; collection Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-85), Amsterdam and Velsen (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam and Velsen (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam and Velsen; ? sale, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq., possibly Album R, no. 14 (‘Hoog Geboomte en Gebergte aan eene rivier. Met de pen als voren, door J. Hackaert’), fl. 12, to Jan Dasveldt (1770-1855), Amsterdam;1…; collection Jonkheer Johan Adriaan Repelaer van Driel (1889-1966), The Hague; his sale, The Hague (Venduehuis), 7 November 1967, no. 150, fl. 1200 to ‘[Karel G.] Boon’;2 purchased for the museum (L. 2228) as a giftof the Stichting tot Bevordering van de Belangen van het Rijksmuseum, 1967
Object number: RP-T-1967-91
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Stichting tot Bevordering van de Belangen van het Rijksmuseum
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
This drawing belongs to the group of southern views that Hackaert made probably after his return to the Netherlands in 1658. Compared with stylistically related inv. nos. RP-T-1884-A-341 and RP-T-1899-A-4255, the present sheet lacks precision. That impression, in some ways suitable for the subject of a shaded river among trees, however, was not the artist’s original intention. The brown ink of the contours in the middle ground appears to have been washed or partially compromised by dampness. It is not clear whether this was caused by accident or whether it was induced by an effort to remove the figures. A standing figure to the right, accompanied by a dog, has been partially scraped out, as can be seen if the drawing is held against the light. The ‘halo’ around the man in the water and the blurred brown penstrokes in that area may also have been the result of such a treatment, most likely carried out in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. In the eighteenth century, figures were generally added rather than eliminated.
A variation of the subject, with the artist’s typical precise handling, is in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1895,0915.1166).3
Annemarie Stefes, 2019
Literature
‘Keuze uit aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 16 (1968), p. 39, fig. 12; A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), I, p. 264, under no. 408 (n. 3)
Citation
A. Stefes, 2019, 'Jan Hackaert, River Landscape with Rapids and Distant Mountains, Amsterdam, c. 1658 - c. 1670', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200140152
(accessed 12 December 2025 14:10:27).