708 - A pair of Dutch Delft faience plaques depicting two views of a Dutch river landscape

A pair of Dutch Delft faience plaques depicting two views of a Dutch river landscape Unmarked. Porous glaze and glaze loss around the rim of the back side. Height 23.5, width 37 cm. Frame with ebony veneer on softwood, H 28, W 41 cm. Around 1700. The two tile pictures, which are certainly by the same hand, depict tranquil riverside landscapes of the kind created by Dutch painters such as Salomon van Ruysdael and Jan van Goyen in the second half of the 17th century. Although Dutch landscape painting in this period did not always provide a detailed reproduction of the subject, it nevertheless remained closely rooted in reality. The viewer’s gaze is drawn to clusters of trees on the banks of the characteristic waterways reclaimed from the sea, and to church spires – mostly in small villages – which stand out strikingly against a low horizon. The depiction of the people does not seem to play a major role; they are reduced to small, schematic figures, as if frozen in their seemingly pensive activities. Provenance The Dessing & Dröge collection.