Wooded Landscape

c. 1650 - c. 1675

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 102 cm × width 74.6 cm × thickness 3.1 cm (incl. cradle)
outer size: depth 5 cm (support incl. SK-L-3393)

Inscriptions

signature, with ligated monogram, lower right: PVA

Technical notes

Support The panel consists of three vertically grained, butt-joined oak planks (approx. 16.3, 27.7 and 29 cm). All edges have been trimmed slightly. Small wooden strips (approx. 0.8 cm) were added on all sides at a later date. The panel was thinned to approx. 0.6 cm and cradled.
Preparatory layers The single, thin, off-white ground extends up to the edges of the support. It consists of large whitish and small ochre-coloured pigment particles and a minute amount of orange pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The composition was built up from the back to the front. An undermodelling in translucent light browns was applied first, followed by the sky. The trees were reserved in the background, except for the smaller branches or leaves, as were the houses on the far left. The undermodelling has remained visible along some of the contours of the tree trunks. The landscape, especially the path, is rather translucent, allowing the ground to show through locally. A cross-section shows that the reddish-brown area to the left of the figure walking towards the houses consists of an initial brown layer, containing black, orange and ochre-coloured particles, followed by a dark brownish-blue layer, consisting of fine blue and large transparent particles with a small amount of red. The paint used in the figures and the sky is more opaque. The landscape was loosely executed and in less detail than the figures. The trees, leaves and figures have impasted brushstrokes.
Anna Krekeler, 2024

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 28 July 2008
paint samples: A. Krekeler, RMA, nos. SK-C-88/1-2, 28 July 2008
technical report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 28 July 2008

Condition

Poor. The panel shows washboarding due to thinning and cradling. There is an indentation at the bottom of the right plank and a related paint loss above the figure on the far right. The paint layer exhibits cupping in some areas along the joins, but appears to be stable. Small losses are present along all edges, as well as overpainting, especially at the top and bottom. Numerous discoloured retouchings and overpaints are visible along the left join. The thick varnish has a distinct craquelure. It has severely yellowed and saturates poorly.

Provenance

…; sale, Jean François Sigault Chz (1786-1833, Amsterdam) et al., Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 3 December 1833 sqq., no. 4 (‘Een fraai Landschap met eene rivier; rijk gestoffeerd […] Hoog 1 el, breed 7 p. 3 d. [100 x 73 cm] Paneel’), fl. 14, to the dealer Jeronimo de Vries, for Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), Amsterdam;¹ anonymous sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 18 October 1849, no. 2 (‘h. 1 el., br. 75 d. [100 x 75 cm] Paneel. Een Rijngezigt met zwaar geboomte en begroeide heuvels op den voorgrond; op den tweeden grond ontdekt men eenen waterval. Langs eenen landweg ziet men verscheidene reizende lieden en wandelaars.’), bought in at fl. 65; bequeathed by Adriaan van der Hoop to the City of Amsterdam, with 223 other paintings, 1854;² on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum since 30 June 1885³

Object number: SK-C-88

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)

The artist

Pieter Jansz van Asch (Delft 1603 - Delft 1678)

Houbraken reports that Pieter van Asch was born in Delft in 1603. According to the city chronicler Dirck van Bleyswijck, his father, Hans (or Jan) van Asch, was a portrait painter, but none of his work has survived. It is known that he was not a member of the local Guild of St Luke because Pieter had to pay the full admission fee when he enrolled as a master in 1623 rather than the reduced sum due from the son of a master. Van Asch never married. He died in 1678 and was buried in the city’s Oude Kerk on 6 June.

Pieter van Asch was one of Delft’s few landscape painters, and was among the first to take his inspiration from the views of the province of Holland made by artists of the Haarlem School such as Jan van Goyen and Salomon van Ruysdael. The Italianate cast of his scenes betrays the influence of Jan Both and Jan Hackaert. The frequency with which his works are mentioned in contemporary probate inventories indicates that they were in reasonable demand, and that appreciation is underlined by the fact that Johannes Vermeer depicted landscapes by Van Asch in his interiors.

Van Asch’s only known dated work is the 1669 Kalverbos near Delft, which includes figures by Hendrick Verschuring and is signed by both artists.⁴ It was intended as an overmantel for the Prinsenhof, the stadholder’s official residence when in Delft, and is very probably identical with the painting for which Van Asch was paid 100 guilders by the city in 1669. It seems that he was also involved in the production of the large engraving with the illustrated map of Delft known as the Figurative Map. In 1675 he received 9 guilders for two drawings of Overschie and Voorburg that he made for this project, but which were ultimately not used.

Richard Harmanni, 2024

References
D. van Bleyswijck, Beschryvinge der stadt Delft, II, Delft 1667, p. 859; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, I, Amsterdam 1718, pp. 235-36; 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.], I, Rotterdam 1877-78, pp. 5, 20; ibid., III, 1880-81, pp. 200-01; ibid., V, 1882-83, pp. 168-69; ibid., VI, 1884-87, p. 12; A. Bredius, ‘Drie Delftsche schilders: Evert van Aelst, Pieter Jansz van Asch, en Adam Pick’, Oud Holland 6 (1888), pp. 289-98, esp. pp. 294-96; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, I, Leipzig/Vienna 1906, p. 30; Moes in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, II, Leipzig 1908, p. 175; J.M. Montias, ‘Painters in Delft, 1613-1680’, Simiolus 10 (1978-79), pp. 84-114, esp. p. 108; J.M. Montias, Artists and Artisans in Delft: A Socio-Economic Study of the Seventeenth Century, Princeton 1982, pp. 80-81, 125, 178, 189, 212-13, 230, 339; Thiele in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, V, Munich/Leipzig 1992, p. 381; G.J.M. Weber, ‘Johannes Vermeer, Pieter Jansz. van Asch und das Problem der Abbildungstreue’, Oud Holland 108 (1994), pp. 98-106; W. Liedtke, ‘Painting in Delft from about 1600 to 1650’, in W. Liedtke et al., Vermeer and the Delft School, exh. cat. New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)/London (The National Gallery) 2001, pp. 43-97, esp. pp. 83, 85-86

Entry

There could be no greater contrast than that between this landscape and the other, earlier one by Pieter van Asch in the Rijksmuseum.⁵ The flat river setting has made way for a hilly, wooded scene with a waterfall. The thin layers of paint and monochrome palette have been replaced by a more loaded brush and contrasting colours. We look down from a high vantage point on a meandering river that lights up in the background. The tall tree on the right enhances the sense of depth. The figures, which are mainly in the foreground, are larger than in the earlier River Landscape and clearly show that this was not one of Van Asch’s strong suits.

The structure of the composition, with tall trees in the foreground and a more varied use of colour, betrays the influence of landscape painters who became fashionable around 1650, among them the Italianates Jan Both and Jan Hackaert. In addition, the upright format was increasingly employed for landscapes from the mid-1600s on, and for these reasons the work can be dated in the third quarter of the century, making it one of the artist’s later pictures.

Richard Harmanni, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

J. van Vloten, Nederlands schilderkunst van de 14e tot de 18e eeuw, voor het Nederlandsche volk geschetst: met ruim vijftig houtsneden en een portret van Rembrandt, op staal geëtst door J.W. Kaiser, Amsterdam 1874, p. 319; A. Bredius, ‘Drie Delftsche schilders: Evert van Aelst, Pieter Jansz van Asch, en Adam Pick’, Oud Holland 6 (1888), pp. 289-98, esp. p. 294; A. Pollmer, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al., De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier: De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum; Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-95, esp. p. 136, no. 1

Collection catalogues

1887, p. 3, no. 16; 1903, p. 34, no. 379; 1934, p. 31, no. 379; 1976, p. 88, no. C 88

Citation

Richard Harmanni, 2024, 'Pieter Jansz van Asch, Wooded Landscape, c. 1650 - c. 1675', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5822

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