Lot 139: JAN JOSEFSZ. VAN GOYEN

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN LEIDEN 1596 - 1656 THE HAGUE A VIEW OF DORDRECHT signed and dated lower centre on the boat: VGOYEN 1649 oil on canvas 80 by 142 cm.; 31 1/2 by 56 in.

Possibly C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. VIII, London 1927, p. 30, no. 69 (as unsigned); H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen. 1596-1656, vol. II, Amsterdam 1973, p. 103, no. 214; H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen. 1596-1656, vol. III, Doornspijk 1987, pp. 167, 178-179, nos. 214 and 310A, reproduced.

The complete painting: Leonardus Bouman, his (deceased) sale et al., Leiden, Delfos, 24 August 1802, lot 53 (for 99 Florins); Abraham Delfos et al., sale,The Hague, Bosboom, 10 June 1807, lot 21 (20 florins to Thomasse); Abraham Delfos, his (deceased) sale, 17 May 1808, lot 5 (50 florins to Sluyter); Left side: Edward Solly (1776-1844), by 1820; Thence by descent to his brother Isaac Solly (1769-1853); Thence by descent in the family until 1976; Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 19 April 1985, lot 81 (for £54,000); Right side: Sir John James Stewart, 5th Bt. of Allanbank (1779-1849); Stuart Johnson, 4 Eaton Place, London, 1916; Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 1 April 1960, lot 67 (for £1,680); Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 16 July 1971, lot 87 (for 2,800 gns to Henderson); Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 12 December 1986, lot 46 (for £22,000). The reunited painting: The two halves were reunited in the late 1990s after which: With J.M.B Guttmann, Los Angeles; Private collection, The Netherlands; Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Van Goyen visited Dordrecht on a number of occasions and this prospect was clearly a favourite of his, for over twenty views of the city taken from this viewpoint - and painted in all seasons - survive, the majority dating from the 1640s. As with most of these, this painting is taken from the south west bank of the Dordtse Kil with the wider expanse of the river Maas in the distance; the large tower in the centre is that of the Gothic Grote Kerk. This and other late views of Dordrecht may derive from a drawing made in his Dresden sketchbook of around 1648.1 A comparable view, of smaller size and painted on panel in the same year is the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.2 It seems that this painting was cut into two sections at some point in the early 19th century; it is last recorded intact in the Delfos Estate sale in Leiden in 1808, and by 1820 the celebrated collector Edward Solly (1776-1844) had acquired the left hand side on its own. At over three thousand works, Solly's collection was perhaps the largest assembled in the 19th century, and was largely purchased by the Prussian state in 1821, where it still forms the core of the German National Museums collection in Berlin. This fragment remained in the family's collections until its sale in 1985. It may well be the painting whose early history is correctly recorded by Hofstede Groot, but he could not have seen it reassembled, for this was not undertaken until the late 1990s. 1. H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, vol. I, Amsterdam 1973, p. 278, no. 846.72, reproduced. 2. H.-U. Beck, op. cit., vol. II, 1973, p. 156, no. 310, reproduced.