Lot 44: GERRIT CLAESZ. BLEKER

A WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH MOUNTED SOLDIERS, A CHURCH TOWER BEYOND

63.8 by 97.8 cm.

oil on panel

Solingen, Niederländische Landschaften und Seestücke des 17. Jahrhunderts aus westdeutschem Privatbesitz, 1965-6, no. 59 (reproduced in the catalogue);
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 24 January-30 March 1970, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, 24 April-7 June 1970, Sammlung Herbert Girardet. Holländische und flämische Meister, no. 59 (as by Esaias van de Velde).

H. Vey, Sammlung Herbert Girardet. Holländische und flämische Meister, exhibition catalogue, Cologne 1970, (unpaginated), cat. no. 59, reproduced;
G.S. Keyes, Esaias van de Velde 1587-1630, Doornspijk 1984, p. 203, cat. no. REJ 60, as "by Gerrit Claesz. Bleker."

J.H. Sperling, Catton House, Norwich;
His sale, Norwich, 28 September - 1 October 1886, lot 743 (as Dutch School);
Dr. Herbert Girardet, Kettwig, by 1965;
Thence by descent.

In the 1886 sale catalogue (1), this picture was merely catalogued as 'Dutch School', and the entry recorded a label identifying the subject as the Search for Charles I of England, while noting (correctly as it turns out) that the picture is of an earlier date. The subsequent attribution is unexplained, but is understandable, given the debt of style to Van de Velde. Nonetheless, S.J. Gudlaugsson suggested an attribution to Bleker in 1969, which George Keyes confirmed in his Van de Velde catalogue raisonné in 1984. (2)

Although it does not look much like his later pictures, which have muted tones and softly moulded figures under the influence of the tonal landscape painters, this picture is very close in style to Bleker's early signed Stag Hunt in the Dunes in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (fig. 1), and his Raid on a Village in the National Gallery, Dublin (fig. 2). The high colour key, the figures, the trees, and the brushstrokes in the foreground in all three pictures are distinctive and very similar to one another. The Dublin picture is dated 1628 and the Haarlem picture (the last digit of its date is missing) is generally dated to the same year, so it seems likely that this picture dates from circa 1626-8. Bleker was strongly influenced by Esaias van de Velde in his early work, and this picture is close to Van de Velde's style at the end of his short career, in the late 1620s.

1. See under Provenance.
2. See Keyes, under Literature.