Lot 11: A river landscape with cattle watering by a ruin and herdsmen resting on the bank

Jacobus Sibrandi Mancadan (Minnertsga, Friesland c. 1602-1680 Tjerkgaast, Friesland) A river landscape with cattle watering by a ruin and herdsmen resting on the bank oil on panel 17¼ x 14 7/8 in. (43.8 x 37.8 cm.)

Noordwijk to Zee, Gebroeders Douwes, Amsterdam, July-August 1925, no. 24.
Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Catalogue des Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, October-November 1927, no. 84.
Leeuwarden, Fries Museum, on loan.

Paul Delaroff (1852-1913), St. Petersburg; his sale Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 27 April-2 May 1914 (lot unknown).
with P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1925.
with Gebroeders Douwes, Amsterdam, 1925-27.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, July 1927.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government. Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

Jacobus Sibrandi Mancadan was both an artist and a government official, having served as burgomaster of Franeker from 1637-9 and of Leeuwarden in 1645. Unusually, he is believed not to have begun painting until middle age, possibly inspired by the Frisian scenery he encountered after settling at Siegerswoude in Leeuwarden.

The present rocky landscape is characteristic of Mancadan's highly individualistic views of the local countryside. In the foreground, a herd of cattle wades in a stream before a ruin, watched over by two shepherds whose somewhat awkward posture is also typical of the artist's work. The background falls away to a distant panorama of mountains dotted with tiny trees, and the entire composition is defined by a series of diagonals leading the viewer's eye further into the scene. Mancadan's palette tends to be subdued and limited to shades of brown and green, and his brushwork fine and detailed, as in the present painting.