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Landscape with a town in the middle distance thumbnail 2
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Landscape with a town in the middle distance

Oil Painting
17th century (painted)
Artist/Maker

This painting was formerly attributed to the foremost landscape painter of the latter half of the seventeenth century, Jacob van Ruisdael, in a Museum catalogue of 1893. However as Michael Kauffmann noted in his Catalogue of Foreign Paintings (London: 1973) the ‘painting is so badly rubbed and so extensively repainted that an attempt at attribution would seem impossible’. Nonetheless, the general composition of the painting is in keeping with the style of landscape produced by Dutch painters throughout the seventeenth century. The only area of the painting to retain its original character is the lower-left foreground, which appears to show some of the contrasts of light typical of Ruisdael’s work, which marked a departure from the tonal landscapes of the earlier seventeenth century.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleLandscape with a town in the middle distance (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Oil on oak panel
Brief description
Oil painting, 'Landscape with a Town in the Middle Distance', Dutch School, 17th century
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 47.3cm (Note: Frame dims: 630 x 793 x 45 mm. Measured by RH Dec 2013.)
  • Estimate width: 72.5cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, C.M. Kauffmann, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1973
Style
Credit line
Bequeathed by John M. Parsons
Object history
Bequeathed by John M. Parsons, 1870
Production
Formerly attributed to Jacob van Ruisdael (1893), this painting is so badly rubbed and extensively repainted that an attempt at an attribution is all but impossible.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This painting was formerly attributed to the foremost landscape painter of the latter half of the seventeenth century, Jacob van Ruisdael, in a Museum catalogue of 1893. However as Michael Kauffmann noted in his Catalogue of Foreign Paintings (London: 1973) the ‘painting is so badly rubbed and so extensively repainted that an attempt at attribution would seem impossible’. Nonetheless, the general composition of the painting is in keeping with the style of landscape produced by Dutch painters throughout the seventeenth century. The only area of the painting to retain its original character is the lower-left foreground, which appears to show some of the contrasts of light typical of Ruisdael’s work, which marked a departure from the tonal landscapes of the earlier seventeenth century.
Bibliographic references
  • Kauffmann, C.M., Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 94, cat. no. 98
  • Ulrike Gehring and Peter Weibel, eds., Mapping spaces : networks of knowledge in 17th century landscape painting Karlsruhe : ZKM Museum for Contemporary Art ; Hirmer, 2014; Karlsruhe : Hirmer Verlag, [2014]; 504 pages : color illustrations, maps ; 30 cm. ISBN: 3777422304 / 9783777422305 5
Collection
Accession number
582-1870

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Record createdFebruary 20, 2007
Record URL
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