4279 - Paul Constantin Gabriel, Windmill

Paul Constantin Gabriel, Windmill Dutch landscape with windmills; in the foreground, a moor with a path; in the middle ground, a gate; in the background on the right, another windmill with further buildings visible; the clouds are bathed in a soft orange glow by the setting sun; slightly impasto painting, oil on wood, signed lower right, second half of the 19th century, in urgent need of cleaning, signs of age, framed, inner dimensions 26 x 30 cm. Artist information: Dutch painter and draughtsman (1828 in Amsterdam - 1903 in Scheveningen), a pupil of his father, Paulus Joseph Gabriel, and of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek; his art underwent a significant change following his acquaintance with the younger painter Anton Mauve, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship; he became a plein air painter, working from 1853 onwards in Oosterbeek, amongst other places, moved to Brussels from 1860, a member of the Hague School; returned to Scheveningen, near The Hague, in 1884; initially, his work was heavily influenced by Romantics such as Koekkoek, from the mid-19th century onwards, he turned increasingly towards the Barbizon School and became a forerunner of Impressionism; today he is regarded as one of the most important landscape painters of 19th-century Netherlands. In contrast to his painter friends in the Hague School, his work is characterised by the adjectives ‘colourful, lush, rich’ rather than by grey tones. Source: Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, ‘The Hague School’, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Mannheim, 20 September 1987 to 6 January 1988.