A Levantine Harbour City

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. There is a previous lining canvas underneath the current one. All tacking edges have been removed. Cusping is present on all sides.
Preparatory layers The single, off-white ground extends up to the current edges of the canvas. It consists of mostly white pigment with a small addition of earth pigments and charcoal black. A narrow strip of bare ground is present along the top and left edges of the canvas.
Underdrawing Infrared reflectography revealed an underdrawing in a dry medium, consisting of numerous sketchy, short, rather thick lines that roughly and very cursorily indicate the figures and other compositional elements. These lines show most clearly in the reflectogram in areas where the contours were not quite followed in the painting phase, for instance under the arch and around most of the figures.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the current edges of the canvas at the bottom and on the right, and almost up to the ones at the top and on the left, where remnants of a barb are present, indicating that the paint did not extend over the original tacking edges. A first lay-in of the background was applied in thin, semi-transparent browns, allowing the ground to shimmer through, and was left uncovered here and there, showing as light brown areas. The composition was then built up from dark to light, with the lighter colours being more opaque and applied more thickly. The figures and other compositional elements were left in reserve in the background and were initially modelled with wet-in-wet paints applied rather thickly, introducing light and dark passages. Small, somewhat oily, impasted brushstrokes and dabs of bright paint were applied to finalize the modelling, and thin black brushstrokes were added to enhance contours and deepen the darkest shadows locally. There is a pentimento in the background where an earlier, higher version of the tower has become faintly visible.
Ige Verslype, 2024

Fair. There are old repaired tears at lower right. The paint is abraded throughout, but especially in the thinly applied light brown areas. Throughout the composition residues of old varnishes are present in the interstices of the canvas. The varnish has yellowed.

…; collection Pieter van Winter (1745-1807), Amsterdam;¹¹Six Archives, Amsterdam, V-F-II V 2, Tauxatie van het kabinet schilderyen nagelaten door wylen den weledlen heer P. van Winter Nsz., 31 January 1815; see R. Priem, ‘The ‘Most Excellent Collection’ of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809-22, with a Catalogue of the Works Purchased’, Simiolus 25 (1997), pp. 103-235, esp. p. 222, no. 177. his daughter, Anna Louisa Agatha van Loon, née Van Winter (1793-1877), Amsterdam;²²Six Archives, Amsterdam, VIII-F-3 I D, Verdeeling schilderyen tusschen Lucr.a Joh.a v.Winter en haar zuster A L A. van Winter 20 Dec. 1815 getr. met Willem van Loon, fl. 275; see R. Priem, ‘The ‘Most Excellent Collection’ of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809-22, with a Catalogue of the Works Purchased’, Simiolus 25 (1997), pp. 103-235, esp. p. 229, no. 12. sale, dowager Van Loon et al. [section Anna Louisa Agatha van Loon, née Van Winter (Amsterdam)], Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 26 February 1878, no. 12, fl. 475, to Six;³³Copy RMA, RKD1 and RKD2.…; bequeathed by Jonkvrouw Henriette Agnes van Loon (1825-1902), Amsterdam, to the museum, with SK-A-2112, SK-A-2114 and SK-A-2115, 1903

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2113

Credit line: H.A. Insinger-van Loon Bequest, Amsterdam

This harbour scene that seems to be set on the Mediterranean coast, probably in the Levant, is typical of Thomas Wijck’s works in the genre. Two men in a turban and a fur-trimmed hat, possibly Arabs, are surrounded by merchandise. Their trading partners are wearing more modern, black attire. As in Wijck’s alchemists’ laboratories, objects – in this case barrels, chests and bales – are stacked in the lower right corner.

Many of Wijck’s Mediterranean harbour views are closed off at the top by a vaulted gateway, a device that he very probably borrowed from Jan Asselijn and Jan Weenix.⁸⁸Blankert in A. Blankert, H.J. de Smedt and M.E. Houtzager, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1965, p. 146. The horizontal beam and the keystone with rings are often found in the artist’s works. The inscription ‘VICTORIA MECATAS / AUGUSTA II’ on the stone tablet above the arch cannot be associated with a specific location, nor indeed can it be translated satisfactorily, probably because Wijck had no Latin. There are comparable harbour scenes arched at the top and composed from the same perspective in Schwerin⁹⁹Staatliches Museum Schwerin; photo RKD. and an English private collection.¹⁰¹⁰Photo RKD. The latter is particularly close, with the man in the fur-trimmed hat shown in the same pose. The one in Schwerin is the simplest in its staffage, but it too has a mountain in the distance. Smoke is rising from its top in the Rijksmuseum picture, as if it is a volcano. It is very doubtful whether it is Vesuvius, which Wijck is supposed to have seen on a visit to Naples,¹¹¹¹C. Skeeles Schloss, Travel, Trade and Temptation: The Dutch Italianate Harbor Scene, 1640-1680, Ann Arbor 1982, p. 36. for there is not the slightest indication that he ever worked in the vicinity. The Rijksmuseum canvas is more elaborate than the other two and has the greatest sense of depth. The impasted manner in all three paintings suggests that they were executed within a relatively short space of time.

There are virtually no dated harbour views by Wijck, and when one does come to light it often turns out to be dubious.¹²¹²C. Skeeles Schloss, Travel, Trade and Temptation: The Dutch Italianate Harbor Scene, 1640-1680, Ann Arbor 1982, p. 27; Levine in D.A. Levine and E. Mai (eds.), I Bamboccianti: Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock, exh. cat. Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1991-92, p. 297. In general, those like the painting in the Rijksmuseum are assigned to the 1660s or a little earlier.¹³¹³C. Skeeles Schloss, Travel, Trade and Temptation: The Dutch Italianate Harbor Scene, 1640-1680, Ann Arbor 1982, p. 27; Hillaire in Q. Buvelot, M. Hilaire and O. Zeder, Tableaux flamands et hollandais du Musée Fabre de Montpellier, coll. cat. Montpellier 1998, p. 247. Although a street scene in Wroclaw has a similar arch, it can be dated far earlier than the present canvas, as both the grouping and rendering of the figures are substantially less differentiated and do not display Pieter van Laer’s influence, noticeable in Wijck’s work from the 1640s onwards.¹⁴¹⁴Wroclaw, National Museum; illustrated in B. Steinborn, Katalog zbiorów malarstwa niderlandzkiego/Catalogue of the Collection of Netherlandish Painting, coll. cat. Wroclaw (National Museum) 2006, p. 207. His later harbour views, such as one in Montpellier,¹⁵¹⁵Musée Fabre; illustrated in Q. Buvelot, M. Hilaire and O. Zeder, Tableaux flamands et hollandais du Musée Fabre de Montpellier, coll. cat. Montpellier 1998, p. 245. have a more Baroque look, due to the inspiration Wijck drew from Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Weenix. The safest course is to date the Rijksmuseum picture to the 1660s.¹⁶¹⁶There are three known variants of it with the composition reversed left for right. One of them formerly in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest was destroyed in the Second World War; photo RKD. The present whereabouts of the other two works are unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Dr Wilhelm Baare, Braunschweig (Hünerberg), 5 May 1958, no. 32, and in the catalogue for the sale, Roerich Museum, New York (American Art Association-Anderson Galleries), 27 March 1930 sqq., no. 60. The latter painting is probably identical to one in a private collection in Rome which is illustrated in D.A. Levine and E. Mai (eds.), I Bamboccianti: Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock, exh. cat. Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1991-92, p. 295, where it has been considerably shortened at the top.

The present painting once belonged to the celebrated collection of Pieter de Winter, which was divided between his two daughters, Lucretia and the younger Annewies (Anna Louisa Agatha), on his death in 1807. The portion containing the Wijck passed to the latter, who married Jonkheer Willem van Loon in 1815. After her death in 1877 most of the pictures were sold en bloc to the Paris branch of the Rothschild family.¹⁷¹⁷R. Priem, ‘The “Most Excellent Collection” of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809-22, with a Catalogue of the Works Purchased’, Simiolus 25 (1997), pp. 103-235, esp. p. 104. However, this painting and 11 others from the Van Loon-Van Winter collection were auctioned in Amsterdam on 26 February 1878.¹⁸¹⁸See Provenance. The buyer, simply referred to as ‘Six’, may have been one of the two sons of Lucretia van Winter and her husband Jonkheer Hendrik Six.¹⁹¹⁹Jonkheer Jan Pieter Six (1824-1899), Lord of Hillegom, and Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Six (1827-1905), Lord of Vromade. Ultimately the work came into the possession of Henriette Agnes van Loon, a daughter of Annewies van Winter and Willem van Loon, who bequeathed it to the Rijksmuseum in 1903.²⁰²⁰Along with three other paintings: Willem Schellinks, City Walls in Winter (SK-A-2112); Jacob Ochtervelt, The Players (SK-A-2114); and Gerard de Lairesse, Cleopatra’s Banquet (SK-A-2115).

Richard Harmanni, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Blankert in A. Blankert, H.J. de Smedt and M.E. Houtzager, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1965, p. 146, no. 72; C. Skeeles Schloss, Travel, Trade and Temptation: The Dutch Italianate Harbor Scene, 1640-1680, Ann Arbor 1982, pp. 26, 36, 38-39; Hilaire in Q. Buvelot, M. Hilaire and O. Zeder, Tableaux flamands et hollandais du Musée Fabre de Montpellier, coll. cat. Montpellier 1998, pp. 246-47

1903, p. 326, no. 2729; 1976, p. 616, no. A 2113

Richard Harmanni, 2024, 'Thomas Wijck, A Levantine Harbour City, c. 1660 - c. 1670', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6557