Lot 104: Jan Baptist van der Meiren (Antwerp 1664-after 1736)

A capriccio view of a Levant harbour with travellers, camels and other animals on a quay
oil on panel
17.7 x 30.8 cm.
with a red collector's wax seal bearing a coat-of-arms (on reverse)

Anonymous sale; Jac. Hecht, Hamburg, 12 April 1904, lot 832, as B. Breenbergh, where purchased by the father of the present owner.

Little is known about the Antwerp landscape painter Jan Baptist van der Meiren. He is recorded as a master in 1685 and said to have stayed in Vienna in 1695. Possibly encouraged by the popular compositions of Hendrick van Minderhout, the artist specialized in southern harbour capricci. We know that he had a pupil named Jasper Broers and his influence is also reflected in the work of other Antwerp artists such as Peter Tillemans. The last known picture by Van der Meiren dates from 1736.

We are grateful to Mrs. Marijke de Kinkelder of the RKD, The Hague for confirming the present painting to be a work by Jan Baptist van der Meiren after first-hand inspection of the original. She points out that the loose, but accurate brushwork, and the sensitive rendering of the highlights on the foliage is closely related to a signed painting by Van der Meiren in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich, dated 1700 (verbal communication, 7 March 2006).

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including €150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in excess of €150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.