Lot 648 | Jan Griffier I. | Mountainous Riverscape

GRIFFIER, JAN I.
1645/52 Amsterdam - 1718 London

Title: Mountainous Riverscape.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Measurement: 37 x 46,5cm.
Notation: Signed lower left in the centre: I. Griffier.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

Verso:
On the plate various adhesive labels with details regarding provenance and exhibitions:
H. Terr-Engell Gallery, London;
Addison Gallery, Andover/Massachusetts;
Private collection Massachusetts;
Exhibition Portland Society of Art, February/March 1953.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

The painting is listed by the online data bank of the RKD, The Hague, under the ill. no. 220375.

There are public state art collections and institutional art collections and private art collections and collections of artists and - let us call it - an "accumulation" of perhaps alleged art objects.
With the following works of art, however, we have the pleasure of presenting to you a very extraordinarily exciting collection from southern Germany. The collector, an extremely successful architect, has remained faithful to his study focus on "Creative Design" at the Technical University in Darmstadt throughout his professional life.
As a student in the 1960s, he travelled to West Africa and the Orient, to countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. He spent three months working and studying in Nigeria - and it was here that his passion for collecting works of art began, a passion that still burns within him today.
A chance encounter with the young painter Michael Engelhardt (1952), a master student of Rudolf Hausner (1914 - 1995), the artist of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism, led to his burning interest in the so-called "Feinmalerei" (fine art painting). He not only immersed himself in the fascinating technique, but also studied the actual origins of this skill among the Dutch in the 16th century up to the Golden Age of the Dutch in the 17th century.
Without any fear of contact, but instead with an irrepressible curiosity, he collects the finest works from this period with an unerring sense of quality. We are now pleased to offer you these crowning pieces here and invite you to immerse yourself in the incredible details of the landscapes and village scenes. For centuries, the artistry of this style of painting has enthralled art connoisseurs, and no significant art collection should be without this particular style of art to this day.

Among the works in this collection that stand out for their special quality are landscapes created by painters who took their cue from Jan Brueghel, the undisputed master of landscape painting of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

The first work we would like to present is the River Landscape by Jan Griffier I (lot 648): Based on resemblances with other similar views, this is probably a landscape of the Rhine region. The artist painted a series of small-format, highly detailed and well-executed views of the Rhine region, such as the present painting. The compositional richness and horizon line of these works are reminiscent of Flemish landscapes of the early 17th century, especially those of Jan Brueghel and Herman Saftleven. In his mature period he also painted views of several English towns, including London, Oxford, Gloucester and Windsor, which he executed in a more swift and less detailed manner than his earlier works.