River Valley [P 7]

The oak support consists of one plank with a horizontal grain. The reverse of the panel has been thinned and cradled. This was done in the period 1900-1920, according to the conservator L. Kuiper. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1609. The panel could have been ready for use by 1620, but a date in or after 1626 is more likely. Cross-sections of paint samples show that the panel was prepared with a thin bottom layer containing lead white, followed by a thicker brownish layer with lead-white lumps and brown and ochre iron oxides. The relatively cheap pigments, smalt and verdigris, were identified in a paint sample of the area where the sky touches the mountains in the right background. Smalt was found in other samples as well. Cross-sections show a remarkably simple structure that generally consists of no more than three paint layers. Examination of the green tree in the middleground indicates that the first paint layers were applied while the ground was still a little wet. Mass spectrometry of the paint samples carried out by Arie Wallert indicated that Segers used a common drying oil as the binding medium (the P to S ratio indicates linseed oil). Infrared reflectography showed an underdrawing in a dry medium, which seems to be pounced in the centre and in the left part of the composition. The paint surface has a rich texture accomplished by glazing and scumbling over furrows of the strong impasto in the underpaint.

Pijl 1995; Wallert 1998

Fair. The panel has one horizontal crack over its entire width and three horizontal cracks of approximately 5 cm each on the right side. There are some areas of discoloured retouching, and the varnish is matte there.

...; Hugo, Count of Enzenberg zum Freyen un Jöchelsthurn (1838-1922), Innsbruck, 1902, as Joos de Momper; from whom purchased by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1902-03; by whom given in usufruct to the Municipality of Groningen, 1914; bequeathed to the museum on the condition that a painting of comparable value be donated to the Municipality of Groningen, 1931 (the donated painting was Willem van de Velde II, Ship on a Stormy Sea, inv. no. SK-A-441).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-3120

For many years, River Valley was considered one of Hercules Segers’s earliest works. The distinctly Flemish elements, such as the high viewpoint, rugged mountains, atmospheric perspective, structure of horizontal bands, and thin application of paint with impasto accents, led many to conclude that the mountain landscape dated from the second decade of the seventeenth century.¹⁸¹⁸W. Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the 17th Century, London 1966, p. 131 (earliest painting); A. Bredius, 'Ein neuer Hercules Seghers', Kunstchronik: Wochenschrift für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe 27 (1915-16), p. 83 (early work); H. Gerson, De schoonheid van ons land. Schilderkunst van Geertgen tot Frans Hals. De Nederlandse schilderkunst, I, Amsterdam 1950, p. 46; G. Luijten and A. van Suchtelen (eds.), Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art, 1580-1620, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1993-94, pp. 672-73, no. 343 (the period 1615-20); J.G. van Gelder, 'Hercules Seghers: Addenda', Oud Holland 68 (1953), p. 150 (the period before 1620); E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Seghers, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans) 1954, no. 1; J.P. Filedt Kok, 'Rivierdal van Hercules Segers schoongemaakt', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 30 (1982), p. 173; B.P.J. Broos, 'Segers (Seghers), Hercules (Pietersz.)', in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, London and New York 1996, vol. 28, pp. 358-59. Collins even placed the painting between 1607 and 1611, at the beginning of Segers’s career, directly after his training with Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1606/07).¹⁹¹⁹L.C. Collins, Hercules Seghers, Chicago 1953, p. 131. Elsewhere (pp. 118-19, n. 23) he referred to a dating after 1612, immediately following his acceptance into the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem. However, the signature hercules.segers rules out such an early dating. As Pijl noted, the painter first used this name from 1621.²⁰²⁰L. Pijl, 'Over de chronologie van de schilderijen van Hercules Segers', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 43 (1995), pp. 172-73. Until 1619, in official documents the artist called himself Hercules or Herkeles Pietersz. Moreover, dendrochronological research undertaken by Peter Klein has demonstrated that the panel would have been ready for use only from circa 1626 at the earliest.²¹²¹Report by Peter Klein, University of Hamburg, 27 October 1995. The plank has 139 annual rings, the youngest dating from 1609. The earliest possible felling date is 1618, more likely between 1622..1624..1628. Ready use from 1626. This research was published by Pijl in 1995. On the reverse, the plank has been planed and parquetry has been added. See Van der Laar in J. Bikker et al., Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2007, p. 357. As such, the panel belongs, together with the three other mountain landscapes (P 8-10), among the paintings made in his later years in Amsterdam between circa 1625 and 1630, parallel to his panoramic landscapes (P 11-15). Segers was apparently able to shift effortlessly between these different landscape types during these years.

Hofstede de Groot was convinced that Segers based this painting on observations made during a journey to the South and that it depicted the Swiss Rhine valley with the Fläschenberg at the centre.²²²²C. Hofstede de Groot, 'Langs welken weg trok Hercules Seghers naar Italië?', Oud Holland 44 (1927), p. 60, gave a detailed description of the topographical location. Collins, by contrast, saw a correspondence with the landscape of the Apennines in Central Italy.²³²³L.C. Collins, Hercules Seghers, Chicago 1953, p. 28. In his view, the painting need not necessarily have been painted after nature, but could have been painted after his presumed return to the Netherlands. There is, however, no tangible evidence in Segers’s works that he ever travelled further south than Brabant. Whereas the topography plays an important role in his panoramic landscapes (P 11-13, in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. nos. 808A and 806B, and the National Gallery of Scotland (inv. no. NG 2800), in his River Valley he made no conscious allusion to a specific location. As in the majority of his paintings and prints, the scene sprung from his imagination. Stechow referred to River Valley as 'the most Flamisant' of Segers’s known works.

Indeed, one can perceive clear parallels with works by followers of Pieter Bruegel I (1525-1569), whose works were abundantly available in Amsterdam’s art market in the early seventeenth century. The bright colour palette calls to mind the mountain landscapes of Van Coninxloo, and in its structure - with the river valley surrounded by rocks - there is an echo of the work of Kerstiaen de Keuninck (1560-1632). There is also a remarkable similarity with the river valley, mountains and conifers in a late sixteenth-century print after Hans Bol (1534-1593) of the Temptation of Christ (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1899-A-21657).²⁴²⁴F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1949-2010, III (1950), no. 184; J.G.C.A. Briels, Vlaamse schilders in de noordelijke Nederlanden in het begin van de gouden eeuw, Antwerp 1987, p. 338 (fig. 430); W. Kloek in G. Luijten and A. van Suchtelen (eds.), Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art, 1580-1620, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1993-94, p. 673. According to Kloek, the formal similarities with Hans Bol's print, borrowed from Pieter Bruegel, suggest that the remarkably desolate landscape was intended as a biblical wilderness. But the light green, blue, dark brown and ochre tints, strong white highlights and pinkish-red accents, as well as the sketchy, fluid execution, show the influence, above all, of Joos de Momper, to whom the painting was attributed until the beginning of the twentieth century.²⁵²⁵W. (von) Bode, 'Der Malere Hercules Segers', Jahrbuch der Könlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 24 (1903), p. 192; Ch. Holmes, 'The Landscape Work of Hercules Seghers', Burlington Magazine 52 (1928), p. 216; E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Segers: The Complete Etchings, with a Supplement on Johannes Ruischer by E. Trautscholdt, Amsterdam and The Hague 1973, p. 31. For an extensive description of the coloration following the conservation carried out in 1981, see J.P. Filedt Kok, 'Rivierdal van Hercules Segers schoongemaakt', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 30 (1982), pp. 169-70. Hofstede de Groot ascribed the landscape to Segers immediately after purchasing the panel in Switzerland in 1902-03.²⁶²⁶Note RMA; W. (von) Bode, 'Der Malere Hercules Segers', Jahrbuch der Könlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 24 (1903), p. 192; E. Trautscholdt, 'Seghers (Segers, Seegers, Zegers), Hercules (Herkules, Harcules) Pietersz.', in in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1907-50, XXX (1936), p. 445. That he was correct in his attribution was confirmed shortly thereafter when the signature was revealed beneath the frame. Von Bode, the general director of the Gemäldegalerie, determined that the signature was the same as that on View of Rhenen from the North-east in Berlin (P 11) and was the first to publish the panel in an essay on Segers in 1903, thus establishing River Valley as the second signed painting among Segers's known oeuvre.

Segers prepared the composition with an underdrawing. Unusually for Dutch painting in the early seventeenth century, the underpainting was applied while the ground was still wet in places. This is also true of the manner in which he rendered the green tree at centre; the impasto of the first layer of paint - here and there pink in tone - plays an important part in the final image. He applied thick lead white highlights to the upper layer with broad dabs.²⁷²⁷For a technical description of this painting, see J.P. Filedt Kok, 'Rivierdal van Hercules Segers schoongemaakt', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 30 (1982), p. 170; A. Wallert, 'A Note on Technical Aspects of Prints and Paintings of Hercules Segers', in A. Roy and P. Smith (eds.), Painting Techniques, History, Materials and Studio Practice: Contributions to the Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, London 1998, passim; Van der Laar in J. Bikker et al., Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2007, p. 357; A. Wallert, '''Forms that lay hidden in a Chaos of Paints": Style and Technique in Hercules Segers's Paintings', in H. Leeflang and P. Roelofs (eds.), Hercules Segers: Painter, Etcher, 2 vols., exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2016-17, I, pp. 141-50. The extensive, rocky mountain valley, the sparse vegetation, the isolated houses and the ruined church at centre call to mind several of his prints (HB 9, HB 14, HB 16 and HB 22).²⁸²⁸L. Pijl, 'Over de chronologie van de schilderijen van Hercules Segers', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 43 (1995), pp. 172-73 (fig. 1), 174. The gently bowed cypresses or conifers are also a feature of several other paintings and many of his prints.²⁹²⁹W. (von) Bode, 'Der Malere Hercules Segers', Jahrbuch der Könlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 24 (1903), p. 192, was the first to draw attention to this motif. The man with the sack on his back on the dark mountain slope at left resembles the figures in Mountain Landscape with a Distant View in the Uffizi, Florence (P 5, inv. no. 1303), and Landscape with a Windmill in the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster, on loan from a private collection (P 6, inv. no. 1821LG). With the exception of the two figures on foot in his River Landscape with Figures in a private collection in Belgium (P 10), this is the largest figure in Segers’s known painted oeuvre, comparable with the man with a stick under the tree in his etching Mountain Valley, at the Right a Man Carrying a Stick (HB 9, e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-820).³⁰³⁰G. Knuttel, Hercules Seghers, Amsterdam (1941), p. 50, claimed that the figure in the foreground is larger than those in any other painting by Segers.

Pieter Roelofs, 2016

Kunsthistorische Ausstellung, exh. cat. Innsbruck (Tiroler Landesmuseum) 1902, no. 145; W. (von) Bode, 'Der Malere Hercules Segers', Jahrbuch der Könlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 24 (1903), pp. 192, 194 (fig. 5); W. (von) Bode, Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen, Leipzig 1906, p. 110; K. Freise, 'Gemälde aus der Sammlung Hofstede de Groot im Haag', Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 2 (1909), pp. 25-26; A. Bredius, 'Ein neuer Hercules Seghers', Kunstchronik: Wochenschrift für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe 27 (1915-16), p. 83; W. (von) Bode, Die Meister der holländischen und vlämischen Malerschulen, Leipzig 1917, p. 150; Exposition hollandaise: Tableux, aquarelles et dessins anciens et modernes, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 1921, no. 98; K. Pfister, Herkules Segers, Munich 1921, fig. 1; W. (von) Bode, 'Kunsthistorische Ausbeute aus dem deutschen Kunsthandel von heute', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 47 (1926), p. 256; C. Hofstede de Groot, 'Langs welken weg trok Hercules Seghers naar Italië?', Oud Holland 44 (1927), pp. 56 (fig. 9), 60; Ch. Holmes, 'The Landscape Work of Hercules Seghers', Burlington Magazine 52 (1928), p. 215; Verzameling C. Hofstede de Groot, III. Schilderijen, (Nederlandsche) teekeningen en kunstnijverheid, exh. cat. Groningen (Groninger Museum) 1930, no. 23; Verzameling C. Hofstede de Groot. Kunstwerken nagelaten aan musea te Groningen en Haarlem, exh. cat. The Hague (Gemeentemuseum) 1930, no. 17; Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks verzamelingen van Geschiedenis en Kunst 1930 53, The Hague 1931, p. 7; B.W.F. van Riemsdijk, Catalogus der schilderijen, pastels, miniaturen, aquarellen tentoongesteld in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1934, p. 264 (no. 2198a); E. Trautscholdt, 'Seghers (Segers, Seegers, Zegers), Hercules (Herkules, Harcules) Pietersz.', in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1907-50, XXX (1936), p. 445 (no. 1); E. Trautscholdt, 'Der Maler Herkules Seghers', Pantheon 25 (1940), pp. 81, 84; G. Knuttel, Hercules Seghers, Amsterdam [1941], pp. 42, 50, 52; A. van Schendel, La Peinture hollandaise de Jérôme Bosch à Rembrandt, exh. cat. Brussel (Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) 1946, no. 101 (fig. 50); H. Gerson, De schoonheid van ons land. Schilderkunst van Geertgen tot Frans Hals. De Nederlandse schilderkunst, I, Amsterdam 1950, p. 46 (fig. 124); W. (von) Bode, Die Meister der holländischen und vlämischen Malerschulen, rev. edn., ed. E. Plietzsch, Leipzig 1951, p. 204; J.C. Ebbinge Wubben, 'Het nieuw verworven landschap van Hercules Seghers', Bulletin Museum Boymans (May 1953), p. 42 (fig. 11), p. 43; L.C. Collins, Hercules Seghers, Chicago 1953, pp. 3, 28-29, 118-19, 131, pl. XVII (fig. 25); J.G. van Gelder, 'Hercules Seghers: Addenda', Oud Holland 68 (1953), p. 150; E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Seghers, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans) 1954, no. 1 (fig. 1); E. Trautscholdt, 'Review of Hercules Seghers, Leo C. Collins', Kunstchronik: Monatsschrift für Kunstwissenschaft, Museumwesen und Denkmalpflege 7 (1954), no. 1, p. 3; Catalogue of Paintings: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1960, p. 285 (no. 2198); H. Gerson, Het landschap in de Nederlanden, 1550-1630. Van Pieter Bruegel tot Rubens en Hercules Seghers, exh. cat. Breda (De Beyerd)/Ghent (Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1960-61, no. 57; W. Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the 17th Century, London 1966, pp. 132-33 (fig. 265); E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Seghers, Amsterdam 1968, p. 10 (fig. 4); P.J.J. van Thiel et al., All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1976, p. 513 (no. A 3120); J. Rowlands, Hercules Segers, Amsterdam 1979, pp. 16, 33 (fig. 46); T. Gerszi, 'Landschaftsdarstellungen von Pieter Bruegel und Hercules Seghers', Bruckmanns Pantheon 39 (1981), pp. 133-40 (fig. 3); J.P. Filedt Kok, 'Rivierdal van Hercules Segers schoongemaakt', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 30 (1982), pp. 169-76; J.G.C.A. Briels, Vlaamse schilders in de noordelijke Nederlanden in het begin van de gouden eeuw, Antwerp 1987, pp. 336, 338-39 (fig. 429); G. Luijten and A. van Suchtelen (eds.), Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art, 1580-1620, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1993-94, no. 343; L. Pijl, 'Over de chronologie van de schilderijen van Hercules Segers', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 43 (1995), pp. 172-73 (fig. 1), 178; B.P.J. Broos, 'Segers [Seghers], Hercules (Pietersz.)', in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, London and New York 1996, XXVIII, pp. 358-60; A. Wallert, 'A Note on Technical Aspects of Prints and Paintings of Hercules Segers', in A. Roy and P. Smith (eds.), Painting Techniques, History, Materials and Studio Practice: Contributions to the Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, London 1998, pp. 152-53; L. Pijl, Van Cuyp tot Rembrandt. De verzameling Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, exh. cat. Groningen (Groninger Museum) 2005-06, no. 107; Y. Bruijnen in J. Bikker et al., Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2007, pp. 357-58 (no. 273); R. Priem et al., Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum, exh. cat. Vancouver (Art Gallery) 2009, p. 126; H. Leeflang and P. Roelofs (eds.), Hercules Segers: Painter, Etcher, 2 vols., exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2016-17, I, no. P 7

P. Roelofs, 2016, 'Hercules Segers, River Valley [P 7], Amsterdam, c. 1626 - c. 1630', in J. Turner (ed.), Works by Hercules Segers in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5451