Lot 647 | Willem Koekkoek | Winter Day in a Dutch Town

KOEKKOEK, WILLEM
1839 Amsterdam - 1895 Nieuwer-Amstel (Amstelveen)

Title: Winter Day in a Dutch Town.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 44.5 x 60.5cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: W. Koekkoek.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Willem Koekkoek, the master of the detailed Dutch vedute of the late 19th century, came from the famous Dutch painter dynasty Koekkoek, which was also based in the Lower Rhine Kleve. Willem was the son of Hermanus Koekkoek, known mainly for his marines, and nephew of the most famous representative Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, whose romantic landscape paintings influenced whole generations.
The painter and chronicler traveled the Netherlands and its cities with his sketchbooks. Drawing on his travels, he captured a wide variety of views of important buildings and typical scenes. From these pencil studies he then composed his Capricci in the studio, which met with great response and secured him an audience throughout Europe. As in the works of his model Cornelis Springer, Koekkoek combines the warmth emanating from the colours of the brick walls with a narrative aspect of city life - and a captivating precision in technique and painting.
From our modern perspective, Willem Koekkoek's vedute are almost photographic renditions of a past city life - and often documents of buildings and cityscapes lost today.

We thank Guido De Werd, Cologne, for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination of the original.