Lot 1145 | Winter Street Scene in Culemborg near Utrecht

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


Title: Winter Street Scene in Culemborg near Utrecht.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 88 x 125cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: W. Koekkoek.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

We see an everyday view of a small Dutch town, a barge has moored on a canal and men are carrying the load, hay, across the picture; individuals are talking in the background in front of an entrance door. The typical clinker brick buildings are precisely drawn and stagger diagonally in perspective into the depth of the picture. Warm winter sunlight makes the brick glow in many nuances. In the background, a characteristic tower towers above the residential buildings and makes this everyday scene a historical document: we are in Culemborg, not far from Utrecht. The characteristic building complex is not accidental, but corresponds to a precise sketch drawn on site by Willem Koekkoek, the chronicler of historical architecture in Holland.

Willem Koekkoek, from the great family of painters from Kleve, spread over several generations of the 19th century, is artistically oriented to the representatives of the romantic Dutch fine painting such as Cornelis Springer or Frederik Marinus Kruseman. These are characterized by a tremendous precision in the technique of painting, which is combined with a warmth in the colouring and a narrative aspect of the representation. Almost always there are busy street views, which give insight into the everyday world of past centuries. Special attention was paid to the recognizability of the respective cities; usually given by individual prominent buildings or church towers. Thus, they still serve as documents of urban history, bringing back to us lost views. Just like his fellow painters, Willem Koekkoek traveled through his homeland and recorded scenes in his numerous sketchbooks, from which he later composed the great vedute in his studio. The characteristic complex shown here with the tower in Culemborg is also found in one of his sketchbooks. The accompanying note provides information about the exact vantage point: " te zien mit de tuin von de Heer Tegelen".

We thank Guido De Werd, Cologne, who confirmed the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.