National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: An Italianate Evening Landscape
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Jan Both was one of the most important Dutch Italianate landscape painters. Born in Utrecht, he followed his brother Andries (1611/1612–1641) to Rome in 1637 or 1638 and stayed there until his return to Holland in 1642. He died in his native town in 1652. While in Rome, Both collaborated on two projects with Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), whose ideal of the classical landscape influenced him greatly. Both's refined brushwork and attention to detail, however, are characteristic of his Dutch heritage.

An Italianate Evening Landscape is a wonderful example of Jan Both's ability to lure the beholder into a distant world and make that world seem welcoming and familiar. In a gentle mountainous setting reminiscent of the hills of the Roman Campagna, several shepherds prepare to return to their homes as the sun slowly descends behind the horizon. The men are surrounded by imposing trees whose foliage creates a rich play with the light clouds and the changing hues of the evening sky. Against the golden sunset that colors this scene, even these humble men gain a simple beauty and dignity.

Everything in this tranquil setting exudes a feeling of well-being. Although the human figures are dwarfed by the majestic trees, man and nature seem to exist in perfect harmony. In this arcadian setting, only the broken trunk in the center of the foreground subtly reminds us of the mutability of the world and its inhabitants.

Inscription

lower left, JB in monogram: JBoth

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Pieter Cornelis, baron van Leyden [1717-1788, known during his lifetime as the Heer van Leyden van Vlaardingen], Leiden;[1] by inheritance with the paintings in his collection to his son, Diederik van Leyden [1844-1810/1811], Leiden and Amsterdam;[2] sold, with the rest of his father's painting collection, to a consortium formed by L.B. Coclers, Alexander Joseph Paillet, and A. de Lespinasse de Langeac;[3] (sale, Paillet and Delaroche, Paris, 5-8 November 1804, no. 6);[4] purchased by Paillet for Herard. Alexander Baring [later 1st baron Ashburton, 1774-1848], Bath House, London, by 1821;[5] by inheritance to his son, William Bingham Baring, 2nd baron Ashburton [1799-1864], Bath House, London; by bequest 1864 to his wife, Louisa Caroline, Lady Ashburton [née Mackenzie, 1827-1903], Bath House, London; sold by her executor and son-in-law, William George Spencer Scott Compton, 5th marquess of Northampton [1851-1913], to a consortium of (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Charles Davis, Arthur J. Sully, and Asher Wertheimer, all in London); presumably retained by Wertheimer until (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18 June 1920, no. 6, as A Woody Landscape); (Permain, London).[6] Charles Hubert Archibald Butler [1901-1978], Shortgrove, Newport, Essex; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 26 June 1964, no. 51);[7] (Alfred Brod Gallery, London), until at least December 1965.[8] (Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London), 1966-1967; sold to private collection; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, 7 July 2000, no. 17); purchased by NGA.

[1] The provenance is taken from the 7 July 2000 sale catalogue. About the Van Leyden collection, see the description of Sale F-80, by Benjamin Peronnet, in The Getty Provenance Index© Databases, accessed 17 February 2012, and J.W. Niemeijer,“Baron van Leyden, Founder of the Amsterdam Print Collection,” trans. Patricia Wardle, Apollo (June 1983): 461-468. As Niemeijer explains, in Van Leyden’s own day the title of baron was not actually used; when alive he was known as the Heer Van Leyden van Vlaardingen. He is given the title of baron in later publications, a title that was indeed his, as an ancestor was created a baron of the Holy Roman Empire in 1548.

[2] Niemeijer 1983, 468. While his son inherited the paintings, Van Leyden’s large and important print collection was bequeathed to his grandson, after whose death in 1789 it became the property of the young man’s mother. Sold in 1806 to Louis Napoleon, it was first housed in The Hague, then Paris, and was eventually returned in 1816 to Amsterdam, where it formed the nucleus of the print collection at the Rijksmuseum.

[3] The sale catalogue does not cite a source for this information.

[4] The sale was originally scheduled for 5 July 1804, and rescheduled for 10 September 1804 (the date printed on the sale catalogue), before finally taking place in November.

[5] Baring lent the painting to an 1821 exhibition at the British Institution.

[6] The 2000 sale catalogue indicates that the painting was “possibly purchased by Seligman” at the 1920 sale. However, the annotated copy of the 1920 sale catalogue available on microfiche in the Christie’s catalogues from the Knoedler Library gives the buyer as “Permain,” who might be the London dealer William Permain.

[7] The painting was erroneously described in the sale catalogue as having come from the collection of his grandfather, Charles Butler of Warren Wood, presumably having been confused with a landscape by Both lent by his grandfather to the British Institution in 1864 (no. 88).

[8] The painting was offered by the Alfred Brod Gallery to the National Gallery of Art in December 1965 (original letter of 13 December 1965 in NGA Photographic Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1821
British Institution, London, 1821, no. 55, as Landscape; a View in Italy, with Figures travelling.
1964
25th Exhibition of Old Master Paintings, Alfred Brod Gallery, London, 1964, no. 41.
1965
Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders [Dutch 17th Century Italianate Landscape Painters], Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 1965, no. 57, repro., as Landschap met muilezelrijder.
2001
Aelbert Cuyp, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2001-2002, not in cat. (shown only in Washington for first month of exhibition).

Bibliography

1854
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illustrated Mss., etc. etc. 3 vols. London, 1854: 2:111.
1976
Burke, J.D. Jan Both: Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976: 200-201, no. 31.
1978
Blankert, Albert. Dutch 17th-Century Italianate Landscape Painters. Soest, 1978, 126, no. 57.

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