|
Jacob van Ruisdael (artist) Dutch, c. 1628/1629 - 1682 Forest Scene, c. 1655 oil on canvas overall: 105.5 x 123.4 cm (41 9/16 x 48 9/16 in.) Widener Collection 1942.9.80 |
Object 6 of 8
Provenance
Probably owned by Francis Nathaniel, 2nd Marquess Conyngham [1797-1876], Mount Charles, County Donegal, and Minster Abbey, Kent.[1] Hugh Hume Campbell, 7th Bart., Marchmont House, Borders, Scotland, by 1857;[2] (sale, Christie, Manson, & Woods, London, 16 June 1894, no. 48); (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London); sold 1894 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] HdG 1907-1927, 4: 119. The only source of information concerning the picture's whereabouts prior to 1857 is HdG, whose listing of the painting is extremely confusing. It seems that any or all of four entries in his Catalogue Raisonné (nos. 285, 367, 418, and 643c) may contain information that relates to the Forest Scene, but these entries also contain additional and contradictory provenance listings, which must refer to at least one other painting. It nonetheless seems likely that before the Forest Scene was acquired by Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, it was indeed owned by a member of the Conyngham family of Ireland, most probably the 2nd Marquess, but also possibly his father, Henry, 3rd Baron and 1st Marquess Conyngham (1766-1832).
[2] Waagen 1854-1857, supplement: 441. The NGA's Forest Scene may or may not have been the Ruisdael painting from Campbell's Collection that was in the British Institution exhibition of 1855. None of the catalogues of three exhibitions at the British Institution (1855, 1857, 1866) gives any description of the pictures exhibited, making positive identification difficult. By the time Waagen was writing in 1857, Campbell owned three Ruisdaels, and so it is not necessarily correct to assume that the "Landscape" that appeared in the 1855 exhibition, or the "Landscape with figures" of 1857, were actually the same painting as Forest Scene. In the case of the 1866 exhibition, however, the more specific title of "Rocky landscape with waterfall" does not fit either of the other two Campbell Ruisdaels described by Waagen. Assuming that Campbell did not acquire another Ruisdael similar to ours between 1857 and 1866, it seems certain that the NGA's Forest Scene actually was the painting shown in this exhibition.
Associated Names
- Campbell, 7th Bart., Hugh Hume
- Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
- Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., P. & D.
- Conyngham, Francis Nathaniel, 2nd Marquess
- Widener, Joseph E.
| « | back to gallery | » | continue tour |