The Country Road

Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter (signed by artist), c. 1620 - c. 1625

Een landweg in de nabijheid van een dorp, links en rechts slootjes en huizen. Op de weg richt een jager met hond zijn geweer op een reiger, rechts maken een man en een vrouw een praatje.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-1502
  • Dimensionsouter size: depth 5.2 cm (support incl. frame), support: height 39.6 cm x width 71.8 cm x thickness 1 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Discover more

more by Gillis Claesz. de Hondecoeter

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Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter (signed by artist), 1620

Rocky Landscape with Deer and Goats

Heuvelachtig landschap met hoge bomen langs een rivier

Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter, c. 1585 - 1638

Heuvelachtig landschap met hoge bomen langs een rivier

Voorname hoeve met schuur

Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter, 1620 - 1629

Voorname hoeve met schuur

Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter

The Country Road

c. 1620 - c. 1625

Inscriptions

  • signature, bottom left (D and H ligated):.G. DH.

Technical notes

The support is a single oak panel with a horizontal grain bevelled on all sides. The possibly ochre-coloured ground layer is thinly applied. Scanning with infrared reflectography revealed an underdrawing in a dry medium – parts of which are visible to the naked eye – for the complete landscape. The figures were not prepared in the underdrawing, and were painted on top of the landscape. The painting has minutely applied, delicate hatchings for the foliage of the trees, and broader, more transparent strokes for the road, houses, sky and whitish highlights.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: K. Schreuder, RMA, 13 mei 2002

Condition

Fair. The varnish is somewhat irregular and there are a few discoloured areas of retouching in the lower part of the painting.

Conservation

  • H.C. Coen, 1987: complete restoration; wooden strips added at an earlier date to the top and bottom removed

Provenance

…; sale, Fedor Zschille (†) (Dresden), Cologne (J.M. Heberle), 27 May 1889 sqq., no. 50, as Gabriël de Heusch, DM 348, to Dr Abraham Bredius, for the museum1RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 169, no. 83 (31 May 1889); RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 169, no. 102 (16 July 1889, no. 1590); RANH, ARS, inv. 289, Kop, pp. 233-34, no. 534 (23 July 1889).

Object number: SK-A-1502

The artist

Biography

Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter (? Antwerp c. 1575/80 - Amsterdam 1638)

Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter came from a family of Flemish artists, which had settled in Delft before 1601. He was probably born in Antwerp, since he is referred to as ‘Jelis de Hondecoeter van Antwerpen’ in a document of 1628. His earliest known work dates from 1602,2Illustrated in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 356, fig. 1. which suggests a date of birth of around 1575-80. He probably trained with his father, Niclaes Jansz, who was also a painter. He was living in Utrecht in 1602, and married Mayke Ghysbrechts in Delft. He settled in Amsterdam in 1610 where, as a widower, he married Anna Spierinx in 1628. He was dean of the Guild of St Luke in 1636, and was buried in the Westerkerk on 17 October 1638.

De Hondecoeter mainly painted landscapes and animal pieces. Two of his sons, Gysbert (1603-53) and Niclaas II (1608-after 1671), also became painters, while his grandson Melchior (1636-95) became the best-known painter in the family.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

References
Houbraken II, 1719, pp. 69-70; Campo Weyerman II, 1729, p. 387; Bredius IV, 1917, pp. 1210-40; Chong in Amsterdam etc. 1987, pp. 354-55; Briels 1997, p. 339

Entry

The country road was auctioned in 1889 as a work by Gabriel de Heusch due to a faulty interpretation of the monogram GDH, which was corrected after the purchase.3Verslagen 1889, p. 10. It is a transitional work in which De Hondecoeter concentrated on the naturalistic Dutch landscape without entirely abandoning his Flemish roots. The central group of trees, for example, is a typical element in the Flemish landscape tradition. However, the flat landscape with the low horizon, the peasant cottages with a few hunters and villagers are fully in the spirit of the realistic Dutch landscape as it had evolved in the prints by artists like Esaias and Jan van de Velde. Brown and Chong rightly argued that the prints of Claes Jansz Visscher were also an influence on De Hondecoeter.4Brown in London 1986, p. 120; Chong in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 356. The monochrome palette shows that he not only took these early prints as his models but also drew inspiration from the painted landscapes by contemporary Haarlem innovators like Esaias van de Velde. This painting therefore most probably dates from the early 1620s, as proposed by Brown.5Brown in London 1986, p. 120.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 133.

Literature

Brown in London 1986, p. 120, no. 24; Chong in Amsterdam etc. 1987, pp. 355-56, no. 48

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 130, no. 1213; 1934, p. 132, no. 1213; 1960, p. 139, no. 1213; 1976, p. 282, no. A 1502; 1992, p. 57, no. A 1502; 2007, no. 133

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Gillis Claesz. de Hondecoeter, The Country Road, c. 1620 - c. 1625', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028077

(accessed 8 December 2025 19:34:06).

Footnotes

  • 1RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 169, no. 83 (31 May 1889); RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 169, no. 102 (16 July 1889, no. 1590); RANH, ARS, inv. 289, Kop, pp. 233-34, no. 534 (23 July 1889).
  • 2Illustrated in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 356, fig. 1.
  • 3Verslagen 1889, p. 10.
  • 4Brown in London 1986, p. 120; Chong in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 356.
  • 5Brown in London 1986, p. 120.