Barend Cornelis Koekkoek

(Dutch, 1803-1862)

Travellers passing a ruined castle in a stormy landscape

Footnotes

Provenance
Purchased by the great grandfather of the present owner
Thence by descent
Private collection, Italy

The collectors seal may be that of Emile van Becelaere.

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862) was the most celebrated artist of his generation and regarded as the founding father of Dutch romantic landscape painting. During his lifetime he was known as the 'Prince of Landscape Painting' and his reputation remains unchallenged to this day.

Barend was the eldest son of the renowned marine painter Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (1778-1851), from whom he received his earliest tuition. In 1822, at the age of 19 he was granted a scholarship by King Willem I of the Netherlands which enabled him to study at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam. He studied there for four years under Jan Willem Pieneman (1779-1853) and the landscape painter Jean August Daiwaille (1786 – 1850), whose sister Koekkoek married in 1833. Even in these formative years, it was evident that Koekkoek's strength lay within this genre. Two years spent in the rural surroundings of Hilversum, in the company of a group of cattle and landscape painters strengthened this passion. His unique talent did not go unnoticed, with one of his summer landscapes awarded a gold medal by the Amsterdam society, Felix Meritis in 1829.

In 1833 Koekkoek married Elise Thérèse, the daughter of Jean August Daiwaille his former instructor at the Art Academy in Amsterdam. The Dutch countryside however failed to satisfy his romantic soul; he stated that his Fatherland boasted no rocks, waterfalls, mountains or romantic valleys and that proud, sublime Nature was not to be found in The Netherlands.

As a result the artist moved to the old Ducal capital of Cleves, Germany in 1834, the year before this lot was painted, where the impressive river valleys, rock formations and ancient woods resonated with his romantic ideals perfectly. Under his leadership Cleves became the breeding ground for a new and influential school of landscape painting. Koekkoek's landscapes, varying from wide river valleys and woody views dominated by one or two giants oaks were very much in demand. Koekkoek founded his own academy there in 1841, where a number of young artists such as Johann Bernard Klombeck (1815-1893), Frederik Marinus Kruseman (1816-1882) and Lodewijk Johannes Kleijn (1817-1897) came to be tutored by the revered master. It was also in the same year that he published his seminal text Herinneringen en Mededeelingen van eenen Landschapsschilder (Recollections and Communications of a Landscape Painter).

His landscapes, particularly dating from the 1840s and 1850s are key to the development of Cleves Romanticism which can be summed up as a fusion of realism and a tendency to idealise Nature with remarkable detail. Our picture, which was painted in 1835 features many of the elements which distinguish Koekkoek's work. A ruined castle is highlighted against a threatening sky as the wind gusts and a storm gathers in the distance. The figures provide some narrative, but are to some degree incidental to the celebration of nature. Sadly in November 1859 Koekkoek suffered a major stroke which effectively ended his career as a painter. He died April 5, 1862, in his beloved town of Cleves.