Esaias van de Velde I
Cottages and Frozen River1629

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Small oil painting of a winter landscape with thatched farm buildings at left and figures on a frozen waterway at right, a church steeple visible in the distance

Small oil painting detail of a forest scene in warm amber and brown tones; a dark hunting dog trots across the foreground, with tree trunks and small figures visible in the middle distance; fine, precise brushwork.

Dark wax seal affixed to aged wooden surface, circular with scalloped edge, impressed with a coat of arms featuring a key and other heraldic devices, surrounded by a Latin inscription border.

Artist or Maker: Esaias van de Velde I
Northern Netherlands, 1587-1630
Title: Cottages and Frozen River
Date Made: 1629
Medium: Oil on paper, mounted on wood panel
Dimensions: Panel: 8 3/8 × 13 1/4 in. (21.27 × 33.66 cm) Framed: 13 × 17 1/2 × 1/2 in. (33.02 × 44.45 × 1.27 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter
Accession Number: M.2009.106.15
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Esaias van de Velde’s slice-of-life painting captures the activities of countryfolk on a cold winter day. While the figures’ faces are obscured and their forms rendered with little detail, their gestures and movement enliven the scene. People skate on a frozen river under a pale blue sky. Two men chat in the foreground; one holds a kolf stick (equipment for an early form of golf), the other pushes a sled full of kindling. One can almost smell the woodsmoke rising from the cottage chimney and hear the dog barking as a man approaches a woman standing in the doorway. A church tower looms in the distance, and birds soar overhead. Van de Velde excelled at rustic winter scenes like this one. Born in Amsterdam and active in Haarlem and The Hague, he is often lauded as one of the earliest artists in the Northern Netherlands to compose such naturalistic local landscapes.

The upsurge in prints, drawings, and paintings featuring regional and identifiable landscapes that occurred in the early decades of the seventeenth century was likely a response to the budding sense of nationhood among citizens of the young Dutch Republic. While many of these artworks depicted recognizable topography, thereby making them portraits of a place, others offered generic seasonal vignettes of the Dutch countryside. The rise of the genre coincided with an increase in disposable income among the middle class, with which they purchased luxury items like paintings. It was into this market that Van de Velde ventured, and his technique of applying thin washes of paint to rapidly execute figures and landscapes enabled him to meet commercial demands. Here, the paper and wood supports add surface texture.
Provenance: Note (1)[D. A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amsterdam].(2) Private collection, Groningen, ca. 1948–80; Private collection, Wassenaar, 1980; [Nystad, The Hague, in 1980, sold 1981 to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, given 2009 to; LACMA.

Footnotes

(1) On the back of the panel is a gray wax seal with three horizontally displayed keys and an illegible remnant of a red wax seal.

(2) According to Nystad.
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.
Keyes, George S. Esaias van den Velde, 1587-1630. Doornspijk, the Netherlands: Davaco, 1984.
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).

Esaias van de Velde I
Cottages and Frozen River1629

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Esaias van de Velde I
Northern Netherlands, 1587-1630
Title: Cottages and Frozen River
Date Made: 1629
Medium: Oil on paper, mounted on wood panel
Dimensions: Panel: 8 3/8 × 13 1/4 in. (21.27 × 33.66 cm) Framed: 13 × 17 1/2 × 1/2 in. (33.02 × 44.45 × 1.27 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter
Accession Number: M.2009.106.15
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Esaias van de Velde’s slice-of-life painting captures the activities of countryfolk on a cold winter day. While the figures’ faces are obscured and their forms rendered with little detail, their gestures and movement enliven the scene. People skate on a frozen river under a pale blue sky. Two men chat in the foreground; one holds a kolf stick (equipment for an early form of golf), the other pushes a sled full of kindling. One can almost smell the woodsmoke rising from the cottage chimney and hear the dog barking as a man approaches a woman standing in the doorway. A church tower looms in the distance, and birds soar overhead. Van de Velde excelled at rustic winter scenes like this one. Born in Amsterdam and active in Haarlem and The Hague, he is often lauded as one of the earliest artists in the Northern Netherlands to compose such naturalistic local landscapes.

The upsurge in prints, drawings, and paintings featuring regional and identifiable landscapes that occurred in the early decades of the seventeenth century was likely a response to the budding sense of nationhood among citizens of the young Dutch Republic. While many of these artworks depicted recognizable topography, thereby making them portraits of a place, others offered generic seasonal vignettes of the Dutch countryside. The rise of the genre coincided with an increase in disposable income among the middle class, with which they purchased luxury items like paintings. It was into this market that Van de Velde ventured, and his technique of applying thin washes of paint to rapidly execute figures and landscapes enabled him to meet commercial demands. Here, the paper and wood supports add surface texture.
Provenance: Note (1)[D. A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amsterdam].(2) Private collection, Groningen, ca. 1948–80; Private collection, Wassenaar, 1980; [Nystad, The Hague, in 1980, sold 1981 to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, given 2009 to; LACMA.

Footnotes

(1) On the back of the panel is a gray wax seal with three horizontally displayed keys and an illegible remnant of a red wax seal.

(2) According to Nystad.
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.
Keyes, George S. Esaias van den Velde, 1587-1630. Doornspijk, the Netherlands: Davaco, 1984.
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).