Lot 2140 Dα

This small-format cabinet piece, which has remained unknown until the present day, depicts the outskirts of a forest with a stream on the left, a water mill in the background, a sunny clearing in the centre of the image, two mules, a goat, and some people conversing. In the background we see further figures making their way through the woods.
The well-preserved painting was created in 1836 in Kleve - where Koekkoek had moved with his young family from Hilversum in 1834 on account of the area's wooded landscapes - at a crossroads in the artist's oeuvre. The strong naturalistic tendencies of his early phase are especially evident in the light colour palette, but the composition, with its dense but still somewhat welcoming forest scenery, already points the way to the artist's later heavily wooded landscapes of after 1840.
Two labels affixed to the back of the frame provide us with a hint as to the work's origins. The oldest of which is on the stretcher and states that the painting was exhibited as No. 293 in an exhibition in Königsberg, probably by the important art association founded there in 1832. The second label is that of the Berlin frame maker George Gropius, who framed the painting in April 1841, indicating that by that time it was probably in private hands in Berlin. George Gropius (1802-1842) was an art dealer and publisher. These two labels allow us to identify the painting with a work by Koekkoek bearing the corresponding title “Eine baumreiche Landschaft mit einem Waldbache” (A rural landscape with a forest stream), which was exhibited in 1837 under number 235 by the Danzig art association, a cooperating partner of the Königsberg art association. It was described there as “Eigenthum des hrn. Stadtr. Reimer zu Berlin” (property of city councillor Reimer in Berlin, cf. R. Meyer-Breme: Die Ausstellungskataloge des Königsberger Kunstvereins im 19. Jahrhundert, Cologne/Weimar/Berlin 2005, p. 66: 1837). Georg Andreas Reimer (1776-1842) was the most important collector of paintings in Berlin at the time. His collection of 1942 paintings was auctioned in 1842 and 1845.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of paintings by B. C. Koekkoek under no. 36/30. We would like to thank Dr Guido de Werd for this catalogue entry.