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Lot 2070 Dα

Johannes Goedaert - Landscape with a Peasant and Cattle by a Farmhouse

Auction 1197 - overview Cologne
21.05.2022, 11:00 - Old Masters
Estimate: 70.000 € - 90.000 €
Result: 87.500 € (incl. premium)

Johannes Goedaert

Landscape with a Peasant and Cattle by a Farmhouse

Oil on panel. 33 x 41.5 cm.

The French diplomat and scientist Balthasar de Monconys travelled through the Netherlands in the 1660s. His "Journal des Voyages" is of considerable significance to art historical research because the Frenchman paid a visit to Johannes Vermeer's studio in Delft. The travel report is also of interest in this context because Monconys also stopped in Middelburg, where he met Johannes Goedaert, about whom he reports in detail (Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys, Lyon 1666, p. 109ff). He there notes in praise of him: "Il est fort bon Peintre en païsages, en insectes, en fleurs."

That Johannes Goedaert (fig. 1) was an excellent painter of landscapes is shown by the present work from a German private collection, whose whereabouts long remained unknown. Goedaert left behind a relatively small oeuvre, comprising barely a dozen paintings and drawings. The corpus of his paintings, in turn, consists of landscapes and floral still lifes, the latter certainly influenced by the great tradition of flower painting in Middelburg. Christoffel van den Berghe, one of the leading representatives of this genre, is said to have been Goedaert's teacher. Stylistically, the present work can be placed alongside a group of landscapes that are housed today in important collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. 577-1882), the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (inv. no. 2839) or the Princely Liechtenstein Picture Gallery in Vaduz. They follow the tradition of Dutch landscape painting that is so exact that some motifs can be identified by their topography, as found, for example, in the works of Jan van de Velde.

Johannes Goedaert as an entomologist

Balthasar de Montconys' description of his stay in Middelburg (fig. 2) is remarkable for the fact that in the four pages he devotes to the town, the name Johannes Goedaert appears again and again, alongside all sorts of excursions, observations and acquaintances. Montconys first went looking for a book by Goedaert in a bookshop, later the arist and the traveller met each other and engaged in an erudite exchange about art and science. The book he was looking for at the bookseller's was Johannes Goedaert's "Metamorphosis naturalis", published in 1660. The work on entomology was the sum of decades of research (fig. 3). Goedaert was not only a leading artist in the city (and accordingly a member of the Guild of St. Luke), he was also one of the early important representatives of entomology. He observed the development and reproduction of insects with dedication and precision, recording his observations in words and pictures, whereby his artistic skills were undoubtedly of great use to him. However, his artistic self-conception and his religious beliefs also placed limits on the extent of his research: Throughout his life, he refused to use a microscope, the invention of which was obviously of great importance for entomology.


Abb. 1/Ill. 1: Reinier van Persijn nach/after Willem Eversdijck: Bildnis Johannes Goedaert © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Abb./Ill.: 2: Johannes Goedaert, Middelburg, Feder in schwarz / Pen and black ink © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Abb. III./Ill. 3: Johannes Goedaert, Metamorphosis naturalis, ofte Historische beschryvinghe van den oirspronk, aerd, eygenschappen etc. etc., Middelburg 1662, Frontispiz

Provenance

With Piet de Boer, Amsterdam, 1993. - German private collection.

Literature

Kees Beaart: Johannes Goedaert 1617-1668, fijnschilder en entomoloog, Leiden 2016, no. 14.