View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil

1644

Jan van Goyen

Artist, Dutch, 1596 - 1656

Painted almost entirely in tones of beige and golden brown, we look across a smooth body of water at a row of buildings around a large church and several windmills scattered across the skyline in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the painting, and the ice-blue sky above is nearly filled with pink-tinged clouds. Closest to us, a man bends over a container or bundle on a narrow spit of land in the lower left corner. Three boats float close by in the water beyond him. A rowboat at the lower center of the painting is filled with at least ten people, wearing bonnets or hats, dressed in tones of muted teal blue, golden yellow, and smoke gray. An empty, smaller boat is tied to and floats off one end of the rowboat. To our left, beyond the spit of land, a second rowboat is pulled up alongside a shallow boat with sails unfurled. Five people sit or stand in the rowboat as a sixth person is helped from the smaller rowboat up onto the sailboat. At least seven people and perhaps some bundles fill the deck of the sailboat. A bird flies low to the surface of the water nearby. A church with a tall, square tower and the lower buildings around it reflect in the placid water on the distant shore. More boats float along the winding shoreline in the deep distance, and a few more spires, windmills, and stately buildings are silhouetted against the sky.

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The Dutch Republic depended on international commerce and shipping for its wealth and power. Whether traveling on the open sea or through the network of rivers and canals that spread across the low-lying Rhine river delta, Dutch ships carried commodities to and from markets at home and abroad. Barges and ferries transported goods and passengers between the numerous towns and villages located along the banks of the inland waterways. Most travelers would approach these urban centers by boat, and depictions of cities viewed from across the water—combining water, ships, and a characteristic skyline—became iconic in Dutch art.

During the 1630s and 1640s, Dutch landscapes entered a monochromatic (or tonal) phase in which a single color pervades and unifies each scene. Jan van Goyen, one of the greatest early landscape artists, was particularly adept at suggesting the various moods of the land in different seasons and weather conditions. The subtle range of ochers and grays, the hovering clouds, and the limpid sails create a tranquil atmosphere. A fisherman works his traps on the left, and a sailboat takes on another traveler. The ferryman in the center foreground has just left his landing and is rowing passengers across the Maas River to Dordrecht.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 49

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 64.7 x 95.9 cm (25 1/2 x 37 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1978.11.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil, 1644

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Eugene Glaenzer, New York and Paris), possibly for (Jacques Seligmann, Paris and New York);[1] sold 1906 to Baron Vladimir de Gunzburg [1873-1932], Paris;[2] by inheritance to his son, Serge de Gunzburg [b. 1911], Geneva;[3] sold 8 February 1978 through (Heim Gallery, Paris) to NGA.
[1] Glaezner managed Seligmann’s New York branch.
[2] This early provenance is given by Hans-Ulrich Beck, Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656, 4 vols., Doornspijk, 1987-1991: 3(1987):177, no. 296a.
[3] According to Heim Gallery.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2018

  • Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2018, unnumbered brochure, fig. 7.

Bibliography

1981

  • Juffermans, Jan. "Han Ulrich Beck—een leven met Jan van Goyen." _Tableau _ 3 (March/April 1981): 594-595, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 297, no. 393, color repro.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984: 14-15, repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 185, repro.

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington and Grand Rapids, 1986: 305.

1987

  • Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. 4 vols. Vol. 3: Ergänzungen zum Katalog der Handzeichnungen und Ergänzungen zum Katalog der Gemälde. Doornspijk, 1987: 177, no. 296A, repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 125, repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 61-64, color repro. 63.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 188, no. 147, color repro.

  • Allen, Eva J. A Vision of Nature: The Landscapes of Philip Koch: Retrospective, 1971-2004. Exh. cat. University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, 2004: 13, fig. 4.

2020

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Clouds, ice, and Bounty: The Lee and Juliet Folger Collection of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2020: 27, 37, 108, fig. 1, 109.

Inscriptions

lower center on stern of boat: VGoyen 1644

Wikidata ID

Q20177196

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