Jan van Goyen

Dutch, 1596 - 1656

Born on January 13, 1596, Jan Josephsz van Goyen began training as an artist in his native city of Leiden at the early age of ten. The series of teachers with whom he studied included, according to Orlers’ near-contemporary account, Isaac van Swanenburgh (c. 1537–1614). Orlers also says that Van Goyen spent a year in France before going to Haar­lem, where he is known to have been a student of Velde, Esaias van de, I in 1617. His early works closely resemble those of Van de Velde.

By 1618 Van Goyen had returned to Leiden, where that same year he married Annetje Willemsdr van Raelst. His name occurs frequently in Leiden documents between 1625 and 1632. In 1625 he bought a house on the Sint Peterskerkstraat, which he sold in 1629 to the marine painter Jan Porcellis (c. 1584–1632). Probably in the summer of 1632 he moved to The Hague, becoming a citizen two years later. Although he also worked in Haarlem in 1634, at the house of Salomon van Ruysdael’s brother Isaack (1599–1677), he is thereafter recorded only in The Hague. He bought a house there on the Wagenstraat in 1635 and built another the following year on the Dunne Bierkade, where Potter, Paulus is known to have lived from 1649 to 1652. Although a prolific and successful painter, Van Goyen engaged throughout his life in various business ventures, usually unsuccessfully; these in­cluded art dealing, auction sales, and speculation in real estate and tulip bulbs.

During the 1630s, Van Goyen, along with the Haarlem artists Molijn, Pieter and Ruysdael, Salomon van, developed a new approach to the representation of landscape that fo­cused on local subjects and utilized a tonal palette, initiating what has come to be recognized as the golden age of Dutch landscape painting. Van Goyen was a highly respected figure in the artistic commu­nity of The Hague. In 1638 and 1640 he was chosen to be hoofdman of the painters’ guild, and received further official recognition in 1651, when he was commissioned to paint a panoramic view of the city for the burgomaster’s room in the Town Hall. In 1649 two of his daughters were married to artists, Margaretha to Steen, Jan and Maria to the still-life painter Jacques de Claeuw (c. 1620–1670 or after). Despite his artistic success, Van Goyen died insolvent in The Hague on April 27, 1656.

Original text by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., April 24, 2014.

Revised to change artist image; sitter identification has changed since initial publication.

December 9, 2019

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Jan van Goyen, Village Fair, 1656, black chalk with gray wash on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.19.3

Village Fair

Jan van Goyen · 1656 · black chalk with gray wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1978.19.3

Jan van Goyen, Foreshore Scene with Windmill, 1653, graphite and gray wash on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1946.11.51

Foreshore Scene with Windmill

Jan van Goyen · 1653 · graphite and gray wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1946.11.51

Jan van Goyen, Wayside Inn, 1653, black chalk with gray wash on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.19.4

Wayside Inn

Jan van Goyen · 1653 · black chalk with gray wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1978.19.4

More than two dozen rowboats and sailboats bustle around a waterway in this horizontal landscape painting. Beige-colored water gently ripples across the bottom of the composition and extends into the deep distance, where buildings, windmills, and a church line the low horizon. Clouds with warm white tops and cool gray bottoms tower across a pale blue sky, which takes up the top three-quarters of the composition. A few reeds poke out of the water close to us, near the lower right corner of the painting. The row- and sailboats just beyond are packed with people. Two flags fly from the masts of the largest ship, which is to our left of center. One flag has red stripes flanking a white stripe, and the other is striped with red, white, and blue. Two rowboats have pulled up to the grassy shore of a spit of land to our left. A ladder leans against the steep hill rising from the water’s edge, and a cluster of spindly trees lean toward the water from the hillock. The people all wear clothing and hats in tones of brick red, ochre yellow, sable brown, and black. More boats move through the water back to the town and waterways to either side.
Jan van Goyen, View of Dordrecht from the North, early 1650s, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.136.34

View of Dordrecht from the North

Jan van Goyen · early 1650s · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.34

Jan van Goyen, View of Scheveningen [recto], probably c. 1650/1652, gray wash over black chalk on buff paper//border in pen and black ink added by later hand, Julius S. Held Collection, 1985.1.34.a

View of Scheveningen [recto]

Jan van Goyen · probably c. 1650/1652 · gray wash over black chalk on buff paper//border in pen and black ink added by later hand ·  Accession ID  1985.1.34.a

""

Six Men [verso]

Jan van Goyen · probably c. 1650/1652 · black chalk with gray wash on buff paper ·  Accession ID  1985.1.34.b

A band of gray ice spans the bottom quarter of this vertical landscape painting, where dozens of people stand, skate, ride in sledges, or cluster near a slender wooden tower, all beneath a vivid blue sky screened with towering gray clouds. We look slightly down onto the scene from a distance. The cloud bank is horizontally streaked with pale yellow light along the bottom, but swells into gray puffs that break apart in several places toward the top to reveal patches of blue sky. The people below wear heavy coats, hats, and trousers, mostly in muted slate blue, gray, and brown. Many have their backs to us. Closest to us and near the lower left corner of the painting, a rectangular wooden sledge on rail-like runners holds five or six passengers, and is pulled by a brown horse toward the center distance. Nearby, a man on his hands and knees scrambles for his fallen hat. A man holds a pole like a hockey stick behind him, looking into the distance where others stand or run with more sticks. Near the bottom center of the painting, a man pushes a sledge laden with two brown bundles. The largest group of people and children gather on and around a rickety wooden pier from which the tower rises, to our right of center. A lantern-like structure sits atop a narrow platform on a tall pole, at the top of the tower. One ladder leads up to a landing about two-thirds of the way up the pole, and another leads to the top. A house with a pitched roof and smoking chimney sits on the far side of the pier, between two bare trees with curling, twisting branches. Birds fly above the tower. The ice is dark gray closest to us, and it becomes paler as it recedes into the distance. People dot the ice singly and in small groups as far as the eye can see. Far away, the silhouettes of a church with a spire, the masts of two ships, a wide tower, and a windmill line the horizon. The artist signed the work with a monogram and a date as if painted on the boat in the lower right corner: “VG 1646.”
Jan van Goyen, Ice Scene near a Wooden Observation Tower, 1646, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2014.35.1

Ice Scene near a Wooden Observation Tower

Jan van Goyen · 1646 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2014.35.1

We look across low, rolling hills at a skyline with a tower, windmills, church steeples, and the rooflines of a distant town, beneath a pale blue sky filled with billowing white and ash-gray clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition. The grass and scrubby vegetation closest to us is warmed with sunlight coming from the left side, and is painted in tones of mustard yellow, chocolate brown, and hints of sage green. The light falls across a road curving in from the lower right, where a group travels toward us. Two men wearing soft hats and rust-red tunics walk before a black carriage pulled by four gray horses. The coachman is wrapped in a cloak the same red as the men in front, and one occupant is visible inside. A man on horseback, dressed in a dark cloak and hat, rides alongside, with a skinny, pale brown dog trotting in front of him. A narrow, gleaming sliver of water with a flat-bottomed boat is to the left, just beyond the road. We see the boat from the long side, with three men near one end and bundles in the other. Another sailboat floats in the river, which winds into the distance to our left. Two more masted ships are docked in the distance, their sails furled. The clouds cast the back half of the landscape in shadow, so it is painted in cool tones of laurel green to capture the densely packed buildings of the town. Windmills and spires suggest more towns along the rise and in the deep distance. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “VGoyen 1646.”
Jan van Goyen, View of Rhenen, 1646, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.136.33

View of Rhenen

Jan van Goyen · 1646 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.33

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.
Jan van Goyen, View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil, 1644, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.11.1

View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil

Jan van Goyen · 1644 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1978.11.1

Jan van Goyen, River Landscape, 1649, black chalk on laid paper, Gift of J. Carter Brown, 2007.88.3

River Landscape

Jan van Goyen · 1649 · black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2007.88.3

Bibliography

1641

  • Orlers, Jan Jansz. Beschrijvinge der Stadt Leyden. 2nd ed. Leiden, 1641: 373-374.

1753

  • Houbraken, Arnold. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen. 3 vols. in 1. The Hague, 1753 (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976): 1:166, 170; 2:111, 235; 3:13.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 8(1927):1-323.

1941

  • Waal, H. van de. "Jan Van Goyen." In Steps towards Rembrandt: Collected Articles 1937–1972. Edited by R. H. Fuchs. Translated by Patricia Wardle and Alan Griffiths. Amsterdam, 1941.

1972

  • Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen, 1596 - 1656: ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. 4 vols. Amsterdam, 1972-1973 (vols. 1-3), 1987 (vol. 4).

1973

  • Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. 4 vols. Vol. 2: Katalog der Gemälde. Amsterdam, 1973.

1977

  • Jan van Goyen 1596-1656: Poet of the Dutch Landscape. Exh. cat. Alan Jacobs Gallery, London, 1977.

1981

  • Beck, Hans-Ulrich, M. L. Wurfbain, and W. L. van de Watering. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: Conquest of Space. Exh. cat. Waterman Gallery, Amsterdam, 1981.

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 GemäldeDoornspijk, 1987.

  • Sutton, Peter C., et al. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art. Boston, 1987: 317-332.

1991

  • Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: ein Oeuvreverzeichnis 4 vols. Vol. 4: Künstler um Jan van Goyen: Maler und Zeichner. Doornspijk, 1991.

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:143-144.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 61.

1996

  • Vogelaar, Christiaan, ed. Jan van Goyen. Exh. cat. Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden. Zwolle, 1996.