A winter landscape with skaters, elegant figures and ‘kolf’ players on ice in a village

JAN JOSEFSZ VAN GOYEN

Leiden 1596 – 1656 The Hague

Oil on panel 33,6 x 26,8 cm.
Signed and dated lower left ‘I.v.Goyen, 162.’

Provenance
Anonymous sale Drouot, Paris, 21 March 1874 (Frs. 510) (erroneously as a pendant to the consecutive lot)
Collection Comte de Camondo, Galerie Georges Petit . Paris, 1 February 1893, lotno. 6 (Frs 1.700), where acquired by W. Gregor
Anoymous sale, Drouot, Paris, 18 February 1895, lotno. 13 (Frs. 750) where acquired by Lange
Collection G. Forbes, London (according to Dayot and Hofstede de Groot)
Sale Jules Cronier, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 11 Mrch 1908, lotno. 88 (Frs.1.200), where acquired by Kleinberger, Paris
With Kleinberger, Paris
Collection Eugѐne Max, Paris, by 1911 and up to 1917
With Granges, Paris
Private collection, Paris, by 1965
Anonymous sale Sotheby’s, London, 1 March 1992, lotno. 36 (Doornspijk £101.200,–)
With John Mitchell, London, by 1993
Anonymous sale Christie’s, Amsterdam, 30 November 2012, lotno. 68 (Euro 211.000,–)
With Johnny van Haeften LTD, London, by 2014, where acquired by the previous owner at TEFAF, Maastricht
Private Collection

Literature
W. Martin, Alt-Holländische Bilder, Berlin 1918, p. 51, fig. 25
C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, London 1927, vol. VIII, p. 294, nr. 1170
H.U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1597-1656, Amsterdam 1972, vol. II, p. 46, nr. 88 (illustrated, erroneously as a pendant to nr. 244) 

Exhibitions
Paris, Salle du Jeu des Paumes, Grands &  petits maitres Hollandais, 28 April-10 July 1911, nr. 40

The present painting is recorded at the RKD, The Hague, under nr. 235652 

Jan van Goyen was the son of a cobbler. He started his career as an apprentice in Leiden, the town of his birth. Like many Dutch painters of his time, he studied art in Haarlem with Esaias van de Velde. The present work, which can stylistically be dated to the mid 1620´s (ca. 1623-1627), is a fine example of van Goyen’s early style and attached strongly to the influence of his teacher. Here, van Goyen employs the format of constructing the composition from clear graduations of perspective, which was taken by van de Velde from Flemish tradition. The dark solidity of the tree and the wood gathering figure in the left foreground, form a stark repoussoir and contrasts sharply with the frozen natural landscape. The centre of the composition is accentuated by the colourful figures and local colouration, set against the expeditiously and monochrome painted windmill, church and village in the third plane. Most notable are the pair of figures in the foreground who engage in a game of Kolf, a predecessor of the modern game of Golf. Kolf originated in the Middle Ages and involved the use of a club to knock a ball towards a target. The sport grew popular in the urbanised Dutch environment. 

This finely executed picture, with its rare interesting depiction of Kolf, is therefore not only a true masterpiece in it’s own right, but also a fine example of the skills and the steep development of a highly talented artist, who would become one of the exceptional exponents of the Dutch 17th century landscape painting.

At age of 35, van Goyen established a permanent studio in The Hague. His landscapes rarely fetched high prices, but he made up for the modest value of individual pieces by increasing his production, painting thinly and quickly with a limited palette of inexpensive pigments. Despite his market innovation, he always sought more income. Not only to related work as an art dealer, but also speculated in tulips and real estates. In van Goyen’s experience it led to enormous debts. 

His only registered pupils were Nicolaes Berchem, his son-in-law Jan Steen, and Adriaen van der Kabel. But the list of painters he influenced is much longer. 

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