Support The panel consists of two horizontally grained, butt-joined oak planks (approx. 12.8 and 32.9 cm), approx. 0.6 cm thick. The left edge has been trimmed, exposing a dowel used to join the planks. The reverse is bevelled at the top and bottom and on the left, and is coated with wax. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1614. The panel could have been ready for use by 1625, but a date in or after 1631 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, beige ground extends up to the edges of the support. It consists of mostly white pigment with some black, blue and red pigment particles.
Underdrawing A sketchy underdrawing in a dry medium, visible both to the naked eye and with infrared photography, gives a rough indication of the architecture, landscape, trees and leaves. It was not always followed in the painting phase; the leaves of the tree on the right, for instance, were initially planned lower down.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The sky was laid in with reserves for the trees and architectural elements. The open brushwork in the sky and the foreground leaves the ground exposed in many places, allowing it to play a part in the overall tonal value of the composition. Parts of the buildings, branches and foliage extend beyond their reserves over the sky. The latter was completed with touches of the brightest blue sometimes overlapping the foliage. The figures were applied on top of the background and the waterfall was scumbled with thin, white paint over a dark, transparent brown. Large sets of leaves were created with a single movement of the brush, while the shrubs and shadows on the ruins were finely hatched. There is prominent impasto in the leaves, rocks and architecture.
Michel van de Laar, 2008

Good. There are some retouchings in the sky on top of the varnish, which has a slightly irregular gloss.

…; from Jonkvrouw Maria van den Berch van Heemstede (1841-1905), dowager of Daniel-Jean Zubli (1839-1898), The Hague, on loan to the museum, 1899 (inv. no. SK-C-627); presented by her son, Berthold J.D. Zubli (1866-1945), Bennebroek, to the museum, 1906; on loan to the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 1924-42

Object number: SK-A-2218

Credit line: Gift of Mrs Zubli-van den Berch van Heemstede, The Hague

According to the dendrochronology, the oak panel of Baltic or Polish origin could have been ready for use by 1625, but was more likely available only around 1631. However, the painting is dated 1627, and there is no reason to doubt the signature and clearly legible year. The style, too, fits in with that date. The Italianate look of this landscape is largely due to the southern European, partially ruined buildings that serve as the backdrop to the biblical story of Christ and the disciples going to Emmaus. The Italianate features notwithstanding, the relatively monochrome palette and the old-fashioned rendering of the vegetation still reflect the influence of the Haarlem School.

The circular building on the left is San Teodoro in Rome, at the foot of the Palatine Hill.⁵⁵First identified as such by Buijsen in E. Buijsen (ed.), Tussen fantasie en werkelijkheid: 17de eeuwse Hollandse landschapschilderkunst/Between Fantasy and Reality:17th Century Landscape Painting, exh. cat. Tokyo (Station Gallery)/Kasama (Nichido Museum of Art)/Kumamoto (Prefectural Museum of Art)/Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 1992-93, p. 209. That small church and the ruins around it were depicted by various artists, mainly in drawings and generally from the same vantage point as here. Most of those sheets are anonymous,⁶⁶P. Schatborn, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-Century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 17. but there are also signed ones by Jan Asselijn⁷⁷See, for example, RP-T-1969-14. and Pieter Monickx.⁸⁸Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; illustrated in P. Schatborn, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-Century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 161. However, no drawing of the church by Charles de Hooch has been preserved. Since it is unknown if he ever travelled to Italy, this view of San Teodoro could be based on a drawing, print or painting by another artist that has yet to be identified.

Richard Harmanni, 2026

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

C.H.C. Flugi van Aspermont, ‘Carel Cornelisz. de Hooch’, Oud Holland 17 (1899), pp. 223-27, esp. pp. 223, 227; Blankert in A. Blankert, H.J. de Smedt and M.E. Houtzager, Nederlandse 17e eeuwse Italianiserende landschapschilders, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1965, p. 90; Buijsen in E. Buijsen (ed.), Tussen fantasie en werkelijkheid: 17de eeuwse Hollandse landschapschilderkunst/Between Fantasy and Reality:17th Century Landscape Painting, exh. cat. Tokyo (Station Gallery)/Kasama (Nichido Museum of Art)/Kumamoto (Prefectural Museum of Art)/Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 1992-93, p. 209

1903, p. 134, no. 1247; 1960, p. 144, no. 1247; 1976, p. 287, no. A 2218

Richard Harmanni, 2026, 'Charles de Hooch, _, 1627', in J. Bikker (ed.), _Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028103