001 Simon Jacobsz de Vlieger "Küstenlandschaft" (costal landscape) of the collection of George V., last king of Hannover. 1630's or early 1640's.
Simon Jacobsz de Vlieger um 1601 Rotterdam – um 1653 Weesp
Georg V. von Hannover 1819 Berlin – 1878 Paris
Jacobus Reimers 1850 Hatshausen – 1914 Berlin
Wilhelm von Bode 1845 Calvörde – 1929 Berlin
Paul Cassirer 1871 Breslau – 1926 Berlin
Hugo Helbing 1863 München – 1938 ebenda
Oil on oak board. Right section of a formerly larger painting. Panel shortened on the left and top edges. Later cradled. In a black varnish frame with a brass plate inscribed "Simon de Vlieger” and with the provenance information "Erwerb a.d. Braunsch. Lünebg. Fideikom. Galerie".
Not in the Kelch catalogue raisonné Kelch. Will be included in the Tak Labrijn catalogue raisonné.
Provenance:
Private Collection Dresden; 1926 Auction Berlin; 1886 Provinzialmuseum Hannover; 1872
...
– 1886 exhibited in the Landschaftsstraße 3, Hannover; 1869 Welfenmuseum, Herrenhausen Castle; 1862 Welfenmuseum, Hannover; Private Collection of the House of Welf.
Registered in:
RKD, The Hague, RKDimages Lite database, no. 212512.
Paul Cassirer; Hugo Helbing: Alte und neuere Meister der Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg: Versteigerung 27./28. April, Berlin 1926, cat. no. 171.
Jacobus Reimers (ed.): Katalog der zur Fideikommiss-Galerie des Gesamthauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg gehörigen Sammlung von Gemälden und Skulpturen im Provinzialmuseum zu Hannover, Hannover 1905, cat. no. 579.
Oskar Eisenmann: Gemälde-Sammlung, in: Katalog der zum Ressort der Königlichen Verwaltungs-Kommission gehörigen Sammlung […] im Provinzial-Museumsgebäude, Hannover 1891, pp. 64–255, cat. no. 583.
Das Königliche Welfen-Museum zu Hannover im Jahre 1863, Hannover 1864, cat. no. 86 with p. 18 (for the provenance).
The "Coastal Landscape near Biervliet” and the Collection of King George V of Hanover
In 1861—1862, on the initiative of King George V of Hanover, the Royal Welfenmuseum (Museum of the House of Welf) was founded in Hanover (initially on Jägerstraße, since 1862 on Adolfstraße) to present old Welf collections. The present "Coastal Landscape” was part of that. Due to the Prussian annexation of Hannover after the German-Austrian War in 1866, George V left his kingdom. From then on, the art collection was administered as an entail by the city of Hanover (called Fideikommiss des Gesamthauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg). The artworks, however, remained in the museum. In 1869, the Welfemuseum was moved to Herrenhausen Castle, where it was merged with a "family museum” (founded 1852). From 1872 to 1886, the painting was temporarily stored in a gallery building on Landschaftsstraße 3, Hanover.
When the extension (Prinzenstraße) of the Provincial Museum Hannover (Sophienstraße) was completed in 1886, the collections, including the "Coastal Landscape”, were henceforth exhibited there. 1892–1893 negotiations took place between Duke Ernst August of Hannover and public institutions. It was agreed that the paintings – as a temporary loan – would remain in the Provincial Museum and presented as The Gallery of the entailed Estate of the House of Brunswick and Lüneburg (i.e. the House of Welf).
In 1925, however, the entail was dissolved, allowing the Welfs to sell off parts of their property. "The Coastal Landscape near Biervliet” was auctioned in 1926 by Hugo Helbing and Paul Cassirer in Berlin. In the foreword to the auction catalogue, the painting was explicitly authorized as authentic by Wilhelm von Bode.
See: Otto Jürgens, Die Entstehung der stadthannoverschen Museen, Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 13 (1910), pp. 248—255, here pp. 211—219.
Simon Jacobsz de Vlieger – A journey to Biervliet
Gillis Tak Labrijn
An overcast sky and a strong wind form the scenery for peaceful everyday activities such as fishing and shipping. Although they are only suggested in a few brushstrokes, the presence of fortifications in the background bears witness to an imminent military threat. These defenses were part of the Dutch-Spanish Lines, a chain of fortified towns and forts along the borders of the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands, particularly in the Scheldt Delta covering the provinces of Zeeland and present-day North Brabant. Along these borders, Spanish troops fought with the armies of the successive Stadtholders, Princes Maurice and Frederik Hendrik of Orange-Nassau, during the Eighty Years' War.
Even if the painter restrains from depicting landscape details, the scene nevertheless lends itself to topographical identification. Considering that the stone fortress on the horizon must be of substantial size and situated almost directly on the water, in addition to the absence of urban details such as tall church towers, as well as the apparent width of the river, the fortress of Biervliet presents itself as the most likely option. By lack of convincing resemblance, the more frequently depicted water forts of Rammekens, Lillo and Phillipine can be ruled out. Seventeenth-century pictorial sources for Biervliet are scarce and known only from cartographical material, which, as a matter of fact, differ considerably from each other (as the actual geographical details may have changed rapidly under the circumstances of war).
The town of Biervliet received its city rights as early as 1183 and was located on an island off the southern bank of the Western Scheldt, in the Dollaert sea loch, the natural divide between East and West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. One had to pass the island to reach the Braakman, a tidal inlet that provided access to the ports of Boekhoute, Phillipine, Axel, and Sas van Gent. North of the island were several large sandbanks, indicated on Janssonius's Zeeland map of circa 1646 as the 'Big Bar' [Groote Plaat]. The island was situated at a junction for ferry services provided by so-called beurtschepen.
The town had personal relevance to De Vlieger, as the place where Willem Beukelszoon around 1400 invented the gutting of herring. Biervliet was traditionally a salt-mining area, and Beukelszoon developed a salt-curing practice for preserving herring by removing gills and viscera. The wide application of this technique contributed substantially to the prosperity of the Northern Netherlands. De Vlieger's father, Jacob Jacobsz., notably was a herring cooper by profession and was appointed inspector of herring and fish by the Rotterdam city council, a position he held from 1596 to 1602.
De Vlieger's oeuvre contains five maritime works painted in upright format, which are consequently executed on a tilted panel with a vertical wood grain. The present painting, however, judging by its horizontal grain and the chipped paint along its left edge, must have been taken from a larger panel, in which it functioned as a right foreground repoussoir. The original scene may well have depicted a three-master to the left as a counterbalance in the composition, and must as such have been comparable to a work formerly in the Molyneux collection (Highclere Castle sale, London (Sotheby's), June 5, 2006, lot 28). An opening in the cloud cover, which causes the light to reflect onto the middle ground, must have been perceivable in the sky on the missing left half of the composition. The original size cannot be determined with certainty, but by using a standard size of a 'salvater panel' (approximately 48 by 62 cm.), the ratio of sky to water surface would be 4:1 – in other words, 4/5 of the painted surface would be above the horizon – which is consistent with De Vlieger's usual proportions.
In advance of the 1926 auction, the painting was assessed by Wilhelm von Bode, who had previously been involved with Eisenmann in compiling the 1891 collection catalogue, for which Eisenmann had also consulted Abraham Bredius. The painting is not mentioned in the list of works included in Jan Kelch's 1971 dissertation. The 'S VLIGER' signature does not appear as such elsewhere within the oeuvre but appears nonetheless stylistically consistent. Two paintings from the mid-1630s are known to be signed with the surname spelled as 'VLEGER': the painting in Berlin, Gemäldegalerie (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), inv. no. 934 (now presented as attributed but accepted by me as an autograph) and the painting formerly in Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha, inv. no. V203 (now in a private collection, Darmstadt). The attribution of the present painting is, based on stylistic congruency, beyond any doubt.
We are grateful to Gillis Tak Labrijn for endorsing the attribution to Simon Jacobsz. de Vlieger following high-resolution photographs.
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Small raised patches of paint, negligible restoration. The upper half of the painting overlaid with glaze (19th century). Joints of the frame slightly opened.
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28,1 x 22,9 cm, Ra. 42,1 x 36,5 cm.
Auction 83
ZURÜCK
