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A sublime view of a small city with a tower on the horizon, sits below a dramatic cloudy sky.

A cloudy but bright sky inhabits two-thirds of the painting. There are windmills on the horizon to the far right of the city and tower. Light filters through the clouds to create a sweep of light that illuminates the rolling chartreuse hills on the lower right foreground. It’s balanced by the glowing water surface on the left, flat and reflective of the sky. A horse and carriage ride down the road from the right. A gathering of three people, two sitting and one standing is situated on the lower left of a darkened hill, overlooking the water.　

Gallery Text

The distinct topographical features of Rhenen, a city near Utrecht perched on the lower banks of the Rhine River, attracted numerous Dutch artists in the 17th and 18th centuries. This masterful landscape of the city and its surrounding areas is one of several versions of the subject by Jan van Goyen, a pupil of Esaias van de Velde and one of the most important landscape artists in 17th-century Netherlands.

Using a limited palette of green, yellow, brown, and gray, Van Goyen depicts the city’s Gothic church of Saint Cunera, medieval fortified walls and twin towers, windmills, and a ferry filled with passengers. His use of bold brushstrokes to suggest a swiftly moving formation of rain clouds is counterbalanced by his meticulous, graphic treatment of the buildings and the lush terrain that includes travelers, fishermen, horses, and birds.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2016.240
People
Jan van Goyen, Dutch (Leiden, Netherlands 1596 - 1656 The Hague, Netherlands)
Title
View of Rhenen
Other Titles
Former Title: A Landscape with a View of Rhenen
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1640
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/356428

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2300, European Art, 17th–19th century, Seventeenth–Century Dutch and Flemish Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
44 × 54.5 cm (17 5/16 × 21 7/16 in.)
framed: 63 × 73.3 cm (24 13/16 × 28 7/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: lower right: V Goyen [illeg.] 4
  • inscription: verso, on panel, chalk: [illeg. text] / 9 Dec
  • inscription: verso, on panel, upper center, black stencil: HV742 [struckthrough] [Christie's stock number from July 8, 1988]
  • inscription: verso, on panel, bottom right, black stencil: HV703 [Christie's stock number from December 9, 1988]
  • inscription: verso, on panel, upper right, black stencil: 535 VR [Christie's stock number from June 29, 1973]
  • label: verso, on panel, center, handwritten text: 73 / 1875

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Edgar Speyer, London, by 1903, bequest; to J. Robert Hewitt, New York, 1932, sold [through his sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, February 29, 1956, lot 14]; to Sidney J. Lamon, New York, sold [through Christie’s, London, June 29, 1973, lot 24]; to [Richard Green, London, 1974]. [Christie’s, London, July 8, 1988, lot 43, withdrawn]. [1] [Christie's, London, December 9, 1988, lot 99]. [Heide Hübner Kunsthandel, Würzburg], sold; to Peter and Anne Brooke, 1998?, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2016

Notes
[1] According to the December 9, 1988 Christie's catalogue, the painting was withdrawn from the July 8, 1988 sale due to a signature that was not correctly described

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Peter and Anne Brooke
Accession Year
2016
Object Number
2016.240
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Valuable and Important Old Masters and XIX Century Paintings, auct. cat., Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc. (New York, February 29, 1956), p. 6-7, lot 14, repr. p. 7
  • Hans-Ulrich Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, Davaco Publishers (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1972 - 1987), vol. II, p. 183, no. 377, repr., vol. III, p. 186, no. 377
  • Highly Important Pictures by Old Masters, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, June 29, 1973), p. 26, lot no. 24, repr.
  • Peter C. Sutton, Pieter Jacobus Johannes van Thiel, and Albert Blankert, Masters of 17th-century Dutch Landscape Painting, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1987), p. 330, repr. as fig. 2
  • Important Old Master Pictures, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, December 9, 1988), lot 99
  • Important Old Master Pictures, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, July 8, 1988), p. 26, lot 24, repr.
  • Peter C. Sutton, Prized Possessions: European Paintings from Private Collections of Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exh. cat., MFA Publications (Boston, 1992), pp. 40, 163, repr. p. 40, cat. no. 66
  • Ronni Baer, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Dutch Painting in Boston, MFA Publications (Boston, 2002), p. 108, repr.
  • A. Cassandra Albinson and Jessie Park, "A Glimpse into the Dutch Golden Age", Index Magazine ([e-journal], April 27, 2018), https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/a-glimpse-into-the-dutch-golden-age, accessed April 30, 2018
  • Mark Feeney, "Harvard Receives Gift of 18 Dutch Golden Age Paintings", The Boston Globe (June 29, 2018), p. B16, repr. p. B16
  • John Hilary, "Reconstructing the Renaissance: The Collection of Edgar and Leonora Speyer", The Burlington Magazine (November 2022), 164, pp. 1104-1117, pp. 1114, 1115 n. 79

Exhibition History

  • Unknown Exhibition, Guildhall Art Gallery, 01/01/1903 - 01/01/1903
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1904, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 01/01/1904 - 12/01/1904
  • Prized Posessions: European Paintings from Private Collections of Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 06/17/1992 - 08/16/1992
  • The Poetry of Everyday Life: Dutch Painting in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 06/12/2002 - 09/15/2002
  • 32Q: 2300 Dutch & Flemish, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/17/2018 - 09/25/2019; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/01/2019 - 01/01/2050

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu