Gillis Claesz. de Hondecoeter
Landscape with a Farmhouse
Oil on panel. 40 x 65 cm.
Monogrammed and dated lower right: G.DH / A°1620.
Gillis de Hondecoeter was born in Antwerp and was among the earliest Dutch landscape painters. He fled to Holland in 1585, married in Delft in 1602 and moved with his family to Amsterdam in 1610. He specialised in wooded landscapes with overgrown old tree trunks populated by animals of all kinds. His works are influenced by Roelant Savery, who had also moved to Amsterdam and may have been de Hondecoeter's teacher.
However, in the present work from 1620, the artist appears to have distanced himself from the cramped compositions of Savery. The piece is characterised by its panoramic effect, sparing use of colour, almost monochrome palette and fine brushwork - all tendencies not necessarily shared by the elder painter.
Provenance
P. de Boer art dealers, Amsterdam, 1965-6. - Galerie Müllenmeister, Solingen 1967. - Private collection, Holland.
Literature
Voorjaarstentoolistelling Amsterdam, <kunsthandel P. de Boer, 11. mei 1965, cat. no. 12 (illus.). - Advertisement by Galerie Müllenmeister, Weltkunst, 25th October 1967 (illus.). - L. Bol: Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, nahe den grossen Meistern, 1982. p. 125, illus. 108.