Italian Landscape with Ferry

c. 1650 - 1652

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height c. 75 cm × width c. 90.3 cm
outer size: depth 7.2 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, lower right, on the tree trunk (J and B ligated): JBoth

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been removed, although there are some remains at lower right.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the current edges of the support. The first, reddish layer contains mostly earth pigments and some small black and bright red pigment particles. The second, grey ground consists of mostly lead white particles and some dark and brown pigment particles.
Underdrawing A very loose underdrawing in a thin, dark, liquid medium is visible with the naked eye, and even more clearly with infrared photography , in the upper right corner in areas of sky surrounding branches and leaves which were planned but not executed. Its sole function seems to have been to give a rough indication of their position.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the current edges of the support. The composition was built up from dark to light. A brown, transparent undermodelling was used to delineate the dark and light areas. The subsequent layers were applied wet in wet. The trees, and probably the figures as well, were applied over the sky. The leaves were executed with a semi-transparent green paint with considerable impasto.
Zeph Benders, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: Z. Benders, RMA (no image available), 29 May 2008
technical report: Z. Benders, RMA, 29 May 2008
paint samples: Z. Benders, RMA, nos. SK-A-52/1-2, 24 June 2008

Condition

Fair. The paint surface is slightly abraded throughout. Matte retouchings are present in the upper right corner and in the water in the foreground. The varnish has yellowed.

Conservation

conservator unknown, 1914: old varnish mechanically removed and revarnished
W. Hesterman, 1978: cleaned; glue lining removed; canvas relined with wax-resin; retouched and revarnished

Provenance

…; sale, Floris Drabbe (1676-1742, Leiden), Leiden (auction house not known), 1 April 1743, no. 43 (‘Een uitmuntend Landschap met een schou dat overvaart […] h. 2 v. 5 en een vierde d., br. 2. v. 10 en een half d. [76.5 x 93.4 cm]’), with pendant, no. 44, fl. 200;¹…; collection Gerret Braamcamp (1699-1771), Amsterdam (‘Een Landschap met beelden en beesten […], h. 2 v. 7 d., br. 3 v. 2 d. [74.6 x 89.9 cm] D.’);² his sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 31 July 1771, no. 25 (‘Hoog 30, en breed 35 duim. [77.1 x 90 cm] Dk. De weêrgâ van het voorgaande schilderij; verbeeldende het ondergaan van de Zon. Twee Reizigers en een knegt waar van een zyn Paard by den Toom houdt, schynen gereed om in eene Pont, waarin men drie menschen en twee Beesten ziet, te stappen. Het schynt als of de Beesten door de hitte van de dag vermoeid zyn.’), with pendant, no. 24, fl. 1,100, to Pieter Locquet (1711-1782), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 22 September 1783 sqq., no. 36 (‘Hoog 30, breed 35 duim. [77.1 x 94.5 cm] Doek. De wederga van het voorgaande Schildery. Dit verbeeld in een bevallig landschap aan een Rivier het ondergaan der Zon, twee Reizigers, en een Knegt, waar van een zyn Paard by den Toom houd, schynen gereed om in een Pont, waar in men drie Menschen en twee Beesten ziet, te stappen, het schynt als of het Vee door de hitte der Dag vermoeit is.’), with pendant, no. 35, fl. 2,400, to Van der Hoop;…; sale, Claude Tolozan (1728-1796, Paris), Paris (A. Paillet and H. Delaroche), 23 (25) February 1801 sqq., no. 13 (‘Peint sur toile, haut de 30, large de 35 pouces. [77.1 x 94.5 cm] […] Un autre Tableau encore admirable et aussi riche de ton que brillant de touche dans tous ses détails; il représente un magnifique point de vue de paysage, offrant une belle masse d’arbres et de broussailles dans toute la partie gauche d’un terrein élevé. A droite, une perspective de rivière, et dans le milieu un ponton où vont entrer des passagers, et où sont déjà nombre d’animaux. L’effet de cet admirable Tableau est pris à l’heure du soleil couchant, […], ainsi que le précédent, de la riche collection de Pierre Loquet […]’), fr. 3,800 (fl. 1,947), to P.J. Thijs, for Gerrit van der Pot (1732-1807), Lord of Groeneveld, Rotterdam;³ his sale, Rotterdam (Gebr. van Ryp), 6 June 1808 sqq., no. 18 (‘Hoog 28, en breed 33 ½ duim [73.3 x 87.60 cm] Dk., Een bergachtig en boomrijk Landschap, doorsneden door eene Rivier, wordende, zoo als ook de lucht en wolken, door de ondergaande Zon, op eene aangename wijze, verlicht. Op den rijke versierden voorgrond vertoont zich, bij het aankomen van eene Schuit met beesten, eene Dame te paard, door een Heer wordende aangesproken, terwijl een Muil-Ezel wordt weggeleid, enz.’), fl. 3,600, to J.J. de Wit, for the museum⁴

Object number: SK-A-52

The artist

Jan Both (Utrecht c. 1615 - Utrecht 1652)

Not everything reported by Joachim von Sandrart, Jan Both’s first biographer, is backed by the scarce documentary sources about the artist. What is beyond doubt is that Jan was a younger brother of Andries Both and was therefore born in Utrecht as a son of the glass painter Dirk Joriaensz Both. Von Sandrart could have seen the brothers when he was studying with Gerard van Honthorst in Utrecht in 1625-27. According to him they were apprenticed to Abraham Bloemaert in those days. It is far from certain, though, that the tuition fees that their father paid in 1634-37 to an unnamed master for an unnamed child actually related to Jan as Bloemaert’s pupil.

It seems unlikely that the brothers travelled to Rome together, as Von Sandrart stated, because Jan is not recorded in the city until 12 June 1638, when he attended a meeting of the Accademia di San Luca. The two of them were registered as living in a house in Strada Vittoria in 1639 and 1641. It was around this time that Jan received a commission from King Philip IV of Spain for six large landscapes to be installed in one or more galleries in Buen Retiro palace in Madrid.⁵ Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, Gaspar Dughet, Herman van Swanevelt and Jean Lemaire were also involved in this, the largest landscape painting project in seventeenth-century Europe. The prestigious contract suggests that Jan Both was probably older than 20, which would place his year of birth around 1615.

He was still in Rome on 29 April 1642, when Cardinal Antonio Barberini paid him 60 scudi for two paintings. He returned to Utrecht soon afterwards, where he took on pupils like Hendrick Verschuring (1627-1690) and the virtually unknown Barend Bispinck (c. 1625-after 1658). He was certainly in Utrecht in 1644, when he executed the background in a portrait of the Utrecht collector Baron Willem Vincent van Wyttenhorst.⁶ Cornelis van Poelenburch, Jacob Duck and Bartholomeus van der Helst also worked on it. Van Poelenburch painted Jan Both’s likeness in 1648 and presented it to the baron.⁷ In 1649 Jan was one of the senior officials of the Guild of St Luke in Utrecht. He died in the city on 9 August 1652, still a bachelor, and was buried in the Buurkerk.

Jan Both specialized in Italianate landscapes. His only dated picture is the Landscape with Mercury and Argus of 1650.⁸ Only a few of his paintings contain mythological staffage, which was added by other artists like Cornelis van Poelenburch. His street scenes with genre-like figures mainly date from his time in Rome and shortly afterwards. He only developed his characteristic Italianate style after returning to Utrecht. His landscapes were so popular during his lifetime that they gave rise to copies and works done in his style, or ‘in the Bothian manner’ as it was put at the time.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

References
C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermarste schilders, architecte, beldthowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuw, Antwerp 1662, pp. 156-58; J. von Sandrart, Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675: Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, ed. A.R. Peltzer, Munich 1925 (ed. princ. Nuremberg 1675), pp. 184-85; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, I, Amsterdam 1718, p. 114; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], II, Rotterdam 1879-80, p. 82; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, I, Leipzig/Vienna 1906, pp. 156-57; Moes in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, IV, Leipzig 1910, pp. 410-11; G.J. Hoogewerff, Bescheiden in Italië omtrent Nederlandsche kunstenaars en geleerden, II, The Hague 1913, p. 53; G.J. Hoogewerff, Nederlandsche kunstenaars te Rome (1600-1725): Uittreksels uit de parochiale archieven, The Hague 1942, pp. 108, 110; L. de Bruyn, ‘Het geboortejaar van Jan Both’, Oud Holland 67 (1952), pp. 110-12; M.R. Waddingham, ‘Andries and Jan Both in France and Italy’, Paragone, no. 171 (1964), pp. 13-43, esp. pp. 13-16, 25-28; Blankert in A. Blankert, H.J. de Smedt and M.E. Houtzager, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1965, pp. 112-15; M.A. Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York 1975, p. 8; J.D. Burke, Jan Both: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, New York/London 1976, pp. 34-39; Chong in P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 1987-88, pp. 276-77; Blankert in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, XIII, Munich/Leipzig 1996, pp. 241-42; Bok in J.A. Spicer and L.F. Orr (eds.), Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht during the Golden Age, exh. cat. San Francisco (Fine Arts Museum)/Baltimore (The Walters Art Gallery)/London (The National Gallery) 1997-98, pp. 377-78

Entry

The compositional structure of this river scene is related to that of Jan Both’s Italian Landscape with a River and an Arch Bridge.⁹ The light, however, is even more golden and glowing. The late evening sun illuminates the delicate foliage of the trees and plants superbly. Those features place the picture in Both’s later oeuvre executed around 1650. Like the above-mentioned painting, as well as Italian Landscape with a View of a Harbour and Farmyard,¹⁰ it was thought in the nineteenth century to be a joint work by Jan and Andries Both, but that attribution was abandoned in the 1880s.¹¹

According to an annotation in a copy of the 1843 collection catalogue, which was probably made by the supervisor H.A. Klinkhamer, the tree on the right was overpainted in the sky.¹² Unlike a remark about the ground – which had become visible at the height of the river, probably due to wear – that observation is based on a misunderstanding. Both started sketching in the composition by roughly outlining the tree. Hereafter that thin, dark underdrawing was not always followed faithfully.¹³ The parts of it that were left uncovered were hidden when the sky was executed. What was taken for an overpaint in 1843 was nothing more than a preliminary design that had become visible again as the layer of the sky turned transparent.

The attractiveness of this scene is due largely to the area around the ferry in the foreground. It is a device that was not used very much by the artist or in Italianate landscapes in general. Both made an etching after this painting which was disseminated widely and frequently imitated.¹⁴ A copy after the Rijksmuseum picture was in a sale in Vienna in 1931.¹⁵

This canvas had a pendant from its earliest known provenance in 1743 until the sale of the Tolozan collection in Paris in 1801. That work is now in the Cincinnati Art Museum (fig. a).¹⁶ However, the composition of that rocky landscape with a waterfall is so different from the Rijksmuseum scene that it cannot possibly be the companion piece. The two paintings would have been associated with each other not only because of their similar dimensions but above all because of a perceived contrast in the lighting: a morning sun in Cincinnati and an evening sun in Amsterdam.¹⁷

Richard Harmanni, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

C. Bille, De tempel der kunst of het kabinet van den heer Braamcamp, I, Amsterdam 1961, pp. 32, 75; ibid., II, 1961, pp. 6, 90, no. 25; J.D. Burke, Jan Both: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, New York/London 1976, p. 182, no. 3; M.A. Scott, Dutch, Flemish, and German Paintings in the Cincinnati Art Museum: Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, coll. cat. Cincinnati 1987, p. 31

Collection catalogues

1809, pp. 10-11, no. 39 (as Jan and Andries Both); 1843, p. 10, no. 38 (as Jan and Andries Both; ‘tree overpainted in the sky, particularly in the blue passages, the offshoots of the tree damaged by heavy cleaning, the ground showing through in the water’); 1853, p. 6, no. 34 (as Jan and Andries Both); 1858, p. 18, no. 38 (as Jan and Andries Both); 1880, pp. 67-68, no. 50 (as Jan and Andries Both); 1887, p. 21, no. 162; 1976, p. 137, no. A 52

Citation

Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Jan Both, Italian Landscape with Ferry, c. 1650 - 1652', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6197

(accessed 22 November 2024 15:28:09).

Figures

fig. a Jan Both, *Italian Landscape with an Artist Sketching from Nature*, c. 1645-50. Oil on canvas, 74.5 x 89.7 cm. Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Mr and Mrs Harry S. Leyman, Endowment. Photo: Bridgeman Images