Lot 43: Jan van Huysum (Amsterdam 1682-1749) A coastal landscape

A coastal landscape with a traveller and his horse on a path, a walled port in the distance
signed 'Jan van Huysum/ fecit' (lower centre)
oil on panel
49.4 x 57cm (19 7/16 x 22 7/16in).

PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Galleries Angel, Paris, 1950, by Felipe J. Brussoni, owner and managing director of Bazar Colon, Montevideo, and thence by descent to the present owner.

While better known as a painter of still lifes, half of this artist's works in public galleries are landscapes. These show a debt to the Amsterdam classicists of circa 1700, in particular Johannes Glauber, as well as to the work of Gaspard Dughet. Like his flower pieces they are notable for extremely fine brushwork and carefully arranged compositions. The present landscape may be compared to the earliest dated work of this kind, that of 1717, which is in the Louvre and shows a grove of maidens culling flowers near a tomb, ruins and a portico, and a distant palace on the shores of a lake bounded by mountains.