Wooded Landscape

Jacob Jacobsz van Geel (signed by artist), c. 1633

In a forest with majestic giant trees, a few tiny figures can be seen conversing. Their insignificance makes the trees, with their fanciful shapes and eccentric foliage, seem even larger. Van Geel stands apart from most Dutch landscape painters. He was not interested in realistic landscapes, but preferred imaginary ones.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-3968
  • Dimensionssupport: height 49 cm x width 73.9 cm, outer size: depth 6 cm (support incl. frame)
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Identification

  • Title(s)

    • Landscape
    • Wooded Landscape

  • Object type

  • Object number

    SK-A-3968

  • Description

    Landschap met een verhoging waar een pad door een boomgroep van grote knoestige bomen loopt. Op de weg enkele figuren, links een vergezicht in een dal.

  • Inscriptions / marks

    signature, bottom centre: ‘Jacob v geel’

  • Part of catalogue

Creation

  • Creation

    painter: Jacob Jacobsz van Geel (signed by artist)

  • Dating

    c. 1633

  • Search further with

Material and technique

  • Physical description

    oil on panel

  • Dimensions

    • support: height 49 cm x width 73.9 cm
    • outer size: depth 6 cm (support incl. frame)

This work is about

  • Subject

Acquisition and rights

  • Copyright

    Public domain

  • Provenance

    ...; collection Fedor Zschille, Dresden, 1889;...; collection Catharinus H.C.A. van Sypesteyn (1857-1937), Loosdrecht, 1931; ? by descent to Jonkheer A.W. Ruyssenaers, Kasteel Sypesteyn, Loosdrecht; from whom purchased by dealer Gebroeders Douwes, Amsterdam, 1943; Museum Düsseldorf, 1943; war recuperation SNK; on loan to the museum from the SNK, 1948; transferred to the museum, 1960;{Provenance reconstructed in Ekkart et al. 2002, pp. 119-2.} on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2004-11

  • Remarks

    Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

Documentation

Persistent URL

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Jacob Jacobsz van Geel

Landscape

c. 1633

Inscriptions

  • signature, bottom centre:Jacob v geel

Technical notes

The oak support consists of a single plank with a horizontal grain bevelled on all sides. The white ground is visible at the unpainted right edge. The paint was applied smoothly in a rich palette of browns and greens; whitish dots were used to highlight the foliage of the trees.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 15 mei 2002

Condition

Good. The painting is slightly abraded, particularly in thinly applied parts in dark paint.

Provenance

...; collection Fedor Zschille, Dresden, 1889;...; collection Catharinus H.C.A. van Sypesteyn (1857-1937), Loosdrecht, 1931; ? by descent to Jonkheer A.W. Ruyssenaers, Kasteel Sypesteyn, Loosdrecht; from whom purchased by dealer Gebroeders Douwes, Amsterdam, 1943; Museum Düsseldorf, 1943; war recuperation SNK; on loan to the museum from the SNK, 1948; transferred to the museum, 1960;1Provenance reconstructed in Ekkart et al. 2002, pp. 119-2. on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2004-11

Object number: SK-A-3968

The artist

Biography

Jacob Jacobsz van Geel (? Middelburg c. 1585 - ? in or after 1637)

Jacob Jacobsz van Geel was born around 1585, going by a document of 1628 in which he stated that he was roughly 43 years old. He was probably born in Middelburg, and may have been the son of the painter Jacob Jacobsz. He is first recorded in Middelburg in 1615 as a member of the board of the Guild of St Luke, and in 1617 and 1618 he served as its dean. He worked in Delft from 1626, where he was accepted into the guild in 1628, before settling in Dordrecht in 1633, joining the guild there in 1634. His last known painting is from 1637. It is not known where or when he died. Archival records show that he had a troubled life, with many creditors, an unhappy marriage involving spousal abuse and a dead child.

His oeuvre consists of around 28 imaginary landscapes, almost all of them on panel, with a few on copper. He began dating his paintings in 1631.2Fantasy Landscape with Large Trees; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Paris (Artcurial), 9 November 2021, no. 46. His oeuvre can be divided roughly into three groups: landscapes with trees on one side and panoramic views on the other, mountainous and rocky landscapes, and woodland scenes.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

References
Bredius 1899; Müller/Van Regteren-Altena 1931; Bol 1957; Briels 1997, pp. 329-30; The Hague 2002, pp. 92-95

Entry

In composition and style, this painting is closely related to Van Geel’s 1637 Wooded Landscape with a Mill on a River in Braunschweig.3Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; illustrated in coll. cat. Braunschweig 1983, p. 69. and can therefore be dated around the same time. In both works there is a view into a panoramic landscape on the left, and a gloomy tree tunnel with densely overgrown treetops on the right. In earlier dated paintings,4See for example, Fantasy Landscape with Large Trees, 1631; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Paris (Artcurial), 9 November 2021, no. 46. Wooded Landscape with Elijah Meeting the Widow of Zarephath and her Son, 1633; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Vienna (Dorotheum), 16 October 2007, no. 14. such tunnels are much more illuminated and Van Geel’s palette is generally lighter. Also the growth of the trees appears to be stylistically more influenced by Mannerism than in the Rijksmuseum scene.

This work belongs to the type of wooded landscape that Van Geel painted during his Delft and Dordrecht periods, in which he displayed a growing fascination with freakishly contorted trees covered in moss and ivy.5For the stylistic features of the works of this period see Buvelot 2008. Their idiosyncratic, ghostly appearance were his hallmark. Staffage in the form of human figures, fauna and buildings has been reduced to a minimum in the present painting.

By producing this type of imaginary landscape based on the Flemish tradition, Van Geel was an exception among his contemporaries, who tended more and more to take their inspiration from the real world.6Buijsen in Tokyo etc. 1992, p. 148; Rüger in New York-London 2001, pp. 264-65.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007 / updated 2026

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. 77.

Literature

Bol 1957, pp. 25, 32, 34, no. 19; Rüger in New York-London 2001, pp. 264-65, no. 21

Collection catalogues

1960, p. 106, no. 948; 1976, p. 236, no. A 3968; 2007, no. 77

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Jacob Jacobsz. van Geel, Landscape, c. 1633', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200109295

(accessed 15 March 2026 12:27:35).

Footnotes

  • 1Provenance reconstructed in Ekkart et al. 2002, pp. 119-2.
  • 2Fantasy Landscape with Large Trees; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Paris (Artcurial), 9 November 2021, no. 46.
  • 3Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; illustrated in coll. cat. Braunschweig 1983, p. 69.
  • 4See for example, Fantasy Landscape with Large Trees, 1631; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Paris (Artcurial), 9 November 2021, no. 46. Wooded Landscape with Elijah Meeting the Widow of Zarephath and her Son, 1633; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Vienna (Dorotheum), 16 October 2007, no. 14.
  • 5For the stylistic features of the works of this period see Buvelot 2008.
  • 6Buijsen in Tokyo etc. 1992, p. 148; Rüger in New York-London 2001, pp. 264-65.