Vlieger, Simon de

Description:

Rotterdam 1601 - Weesp 1653
34,5 x 26,5 cm
A jetty with a rowing boat and fishermen. Oil/oak panel, signed on the rowing boat S DE VLIEGER.
Sale A. Lehmann, Paris, Galerie G. Petit, 12.6.1925, lot 293; Ferdinand III Mülhens Collection, Cologne.
Expert report by Dr. Ulrike Middendorf.
At dawn, two fishermen load or unload their boat at a jetty with a signal mast. They are coastal fishermen with their fish baskets to keep the catch fresh.
The upright format of the painting, unusual for a marine, consists mostly of sky, with the upper dark clouds casting their shadows on the lower water's edge, which sums up the composition. The almost monochrome painting is a prime example of so-called 'tonalist' landscape and marine painting with a highly reduced colour palette. Jan van Goyen and Jan Porcellis were also notable representatives of this style in the first half of the 17th century in the Netherlands.
Jan Kelch writes about the painting: "(... )so the "Mooring with Rowboats and Fishermen" from the former Lehmann Collection in Paris (...) can be described as a modestly formulated offshoot of the theme shaped by the painting in the Mnizech Collection. The work from the Lehmann Collection elevates the main motif of the Mnizech marine, the landing stage equipped with a sea mark and rowing boats, to an independent and form-determining object. We may date this seascape not much later than the one in the Mnizech collection of 1636. The motif of the fisherman sitting on the landing stage as well as the construction and drawing of the picturesquely weathered beam structure point to a close chronological proximity.
According to the time of origin of the painting, it belongs to the Delft years of de Vlieger between 1634-1638.
We are grateful to Dr. Ulrike Middendorf for advise.
Literature:
Kelch, J.: Studien zu Simon de Vlieger als Marinemaler. (unpublished typewritten thesis) Berlin 1971, catalogue of paintings no. 59 with(cited) text p. 48.
Comparative literature to Simon de Vlieger:
Bol, L.: Die holländische Marinemalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Braunschweig 1973
Exhibition catalogue „Herren der Meere - Meister der Kunst“, Rotterdam and Berlin 1996/97, J. Giltai and J. Kelch (ed.).