Jan van Goyen
View of Dordrecht1645

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Oil painting of a wide river landscape with sailboats and rowboats, a Dutch town with a Gothic church tower along the far bank, and billowing clouds filling most of the sky

Reverse of a panel painting showing aged, dark brown wood with visible grain, horizontal crossbars, scattered paint losses, and a small printed label near the lower right.

Artist or Maker: Jan van Goyen
Northern Netherlands, 1596-1656
Title: View of Dordrecht
Date Made: 1645
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: Panel: 25 1/2 × 37 1/2 in. (64.77 × 95.25 cm) Framed: 36 × 46 × 4 1/2 in. (91.44 × 116.84 × 11.43 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter
Accession Number: M.2009.106.6
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Jan van Goyen rendered this view of the island city of Dordrecht as if he were standing at the edge of the shoreline. Bounded by the waterways Nieuwe Merwede, Beneden Merwede, Oude Maas, and Dordtsche Kil, Dordrecht was a major port for the Dutch East India Company and a hub of local commerce. An extensive ferry network linked the city to nearby communities, facilitating trade and travel throughout the Netherlands and farther afield into the Spanish provinces and Germany. Rather than the glorification of ocean-faring vessels typical of Dutch marine paintings, Van Goyen here chose to emphasize local modes of water transport. The small boats that traverse the water suggest an active, thriving region. Recognizable landmarks are visible in the distant cityscape, particularly the tower of the Grote Kerk, left unfinished because the marshland was too soft to support the structure.

Over some fifteen years, Van Goyen painted at least twenty different scenes of Dordrecht, ranging from frozen winter landscapes to river views like this one (see also National Museums Liverpool, WAG 2000.25), created to satisfy a market demand for representations of local life.
Provenance: Lord St. Leonards, Boyle Farm, Thames Ditton, Surrey (probably estate sale, Thames Ditton, E. & H. Lumley, 1 Nov.1886, lot 1018, as "Outward Port of Rotterdam, 37 1/2 × 25 1/2"; sold for ￡180 to);(1) [Martin Colnaghi (1821–1908), London].(2) S. E. Kennedy, Esq. (sale, London, Christie’s, 6 July 1917, lot 13, as "from the Collection of Lord St. Leonards," sold for ￡1,400 to); [Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, stock no. 4966, sold July 1919 to]; [F. Muller & Co., Amsterdam]; H. E. Smidt van Gelder, Aerdenhout (near Haarlem), by 1919, sold 1979 through; [G. Cramer, The Hague, to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, Los Angeles, given 2009 to; LACMA.
Footnotes

(1) This is the only painting by Van Goyen known to have been in St. Leonards’s sale. The reference to Lord St. Leonards comes from the Kennedy sale catalogue. HdG 1908–27, vol. 8 (1927), no. 95, incorrectly identifies the St. Leonards and Kennedy painting as a similar View of Dordrecht by Van Goyen that was later in the collection of Charles Butler. That painting is, however, H.-U. Beck 1972–87, vol. 2 (1973), no. 310 (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, inv. no. 1933.27).

(2) According to the annotation "M. Col" in the copy of the St. Leonards’s sale catalogue at the Getty Research Institute.
Selected Bibliography: Walsh, Jr., John., and Cynthis P. Schneider. A Mirror of Nature: Dutch Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter (Second Edition). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.
Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: Ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1972-73.
Walsh, Amy L. The Mr. and Mrs. Edward Carter Collection of Dutch Paintings. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019. https://archive.org/details/Carter_Collection_Dutch_Paintings (accessed May 23, 2022).

Jan van Goyen
View of Dordrecht1645

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Jan van Goyen
Northern Netherlands, 1596-1656
Title: View of Dordrecht
Date Made: 1645
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: Panel: 25 1/2 × 37 1/2 in. (64.77 × 95.25 cm) Framed: 36 × 46 × 4 1/2 in. (91.44 × 116.84 × 11.43 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter
Accession Number: M.2009.106.6
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Jan van Goyen rendered this view of the island city of Dordrecht as if he were standing at the edge of the shoreline. Bounded by the waterways Nieuwe Merwede, Beneden Merwede, Oude Maas, and Dordtsche Kil, Dordrecht was a major port for the Dutch East India Company and a hub of local commerce. An extensive ferry network linked the city to nearby communities, facilitating trade and travel throughout the Netherlands and farther afield into the Spanish provinces and Germany. Rather than the glorification of ocean-faring vessels typical of Dutch marine paintings, Van Goyen here chose to emphasize local modes of water transport. The small boats that traverse the water suggest an active, thriving region. Recognizable landmarks are visible in the distant cityscape, particularly the tower of the Grote Kerk, left unfinished because the marshland was too soft to support the structure.

Over some fifteen years, Van Goyen painted at least twenty different scenes of Dordrecht, ranging from frozen winter landscapes to river views like this one (see also National Museums Liverpool, WAG 2000.25), created to satisfy a market demand for representations of local life.
Provenance: Lord St. Leonards, Boyle Farm, Thames Ditton, Surrey (probably estate sale, Thames Ditton, E. & H. Lumley, 1 Nov.1886, lot 1018, as "Outward Port of Rotterdam, 37 1/2 × 25 1/2"; sold for ￡180 to);(1) [Martin Colnaghi (1821–1908), London].(2) S. E. Kennedy, Esq. (sale, London, Christie’s, 6 July 1917, lot 13, as "from the Collection of Lord St. Leonards," sold for ￡1,400 to); [Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, stock no. 4966, sold July 1919 to]; [F. Muller & Co., Amsterdam]; H. E. Smidt van Gelder, Aerdenhout (near Haarlem), by 1919, sold 1979 through; [G. Cramer, The Hague, to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, Los Angeles, given 2009 to; LACMA.
Footnotes

(1) This is the only painting by Van Goyen known to have been in St. Leonards’s sale. The reference to Lord St. Leonards comes from the Kennedy sale catalogue. HdG 1908–27, vol. 8 (1927), no. 95, incorrectly identifies the St. Leonards and Kennedy painting as a similar View of Dordrecht by Van Goyen that was later in the collection of Charles Butler. That painting is, however, H.-U. Beck 1972–87, vol. 2 (1973), no. 310 (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, inv. no. 1933.27).

(2) According to the annotation "M. Col" in the copy of the St. Leonards’s sale catalogue at the Getty Research Institute.
Selected Bibliography: Walsh, Jr., John., and Cynthis P. Schneider. A Mirror of Nature: Dutch Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter (Second Edition). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.
Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: Ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1972-73.
Walsh, Amy L. The Mr. and Mrs. Edward Carter Collection of Dutch Paintings. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019. https://archive.org/details/Carter_Collection_Dutch_Paintings (accessed May 23, 2022).