Lot 35: GOTTFRIED WALS, CALLED GOFFREDO TEDESCO

GOTTFRIED WALS, CALLED GOFFREDO TEDESCO COLOGNE 1590/95 - 1638/40 NAPLES AN ITALIANATE RIVER LANDSCAPE WITH SHEPHERDS WATERING THEIR FLOCK BENEATH A RUIN oil on copper, in a painted tondo 29.5 by 29.7 cm.; 11 1/2 by 11 3/4 in.

R.R. Brettell, C.D. Dickerson III, From the Private Collections of Texas, Fort Worth 2009 - 2010, p. 155, under cat. no. 20, reproduced fig. 3.

With Giacomo Algranti, Paris;
Acquired by the present collector in 2003.

Although the Flemish collector Gaspard de Roomer, who lived in Naples, is said to have owned no fewer than sixty paintings by Wals, Anke Repp records only nineteen extant autograph paintings by the artist in her 1986 catalogue of his works, none of which is signed or dated.υ1 The majority of these are painted on copper, a surface which allowed for exceptionally fine brushstrokes and which lent a luminosity and radiance to a scene that no other medium could achieve. Although so few works have survived, those that have are, almost in every case, impeccably preserved, a fact due to Wals' excellence as a technician and his use of the most precious materials (for example, lapis lazuli is often found in his blue skies). Although a remarkably gifted painter in his own right, Wals' most important role was perhaps in the early training of Claude Lorrain, with whom he spent two years in Naples, and for introducing him to the magic of copper. Claude's finely detailed early landscapes on copper, such as the following lot or The rest on the flight to Egyptυ2 are inconceivable without the influence of Wals.

The compositional rules of this painting follow those of the majority of the artist's other works. Wals favoured the circular format and, without exception, all the landscapes are governed by powerful horizontals, here most notable on the near and far banks of the river that flows sedately across the picture plane. The landscape itself takes precedence, with the figures subjugated to a mere supporting role although they do lend a pastoral element to the overall effect that might otherwise be lacking. Wals never overcomplicated his landscapes, and relied instead on the simple fusion of unassuming, naturalistic motifs, such as a farm building or an overgrown ruin, with the most subtle gradations of light and dark.

The ruin above the river appears to be based on a drawing by Wals that is kept in the Cabinet des Dessins in the Louvre, although the artist has simplified the two smaller arches into one larger.υ3

The attribution to Wals has been confirmed by Prof. Marcel Roethlisberger following inspection of the original (private communication to the owner). Although it is impossible to establish any kind of chronology for Wals' paintings, there being no dated examples, Prof. Roethlisberger is inclined to believe this a later work, from the mid-1620s, given its very close relationship to, and even its debt to, the early output of the artist's best student, Claude Lorrain.

1. The present work was unknown to her.
2. R.R. Brettell et al., under Literature, reproduced p. 152, fig. 1.
3. See A. Repp, Goffredo Wals. Zur Landschaftmalerei zwischen Adam Elsheimer und Claude Lorrain, Cologne 1986, pp. 98-99, reproduced fig. 29.