1034 - Jan Vermeer van Haarlem

Jan Vermeer van Haarlem Evening Landscape with Figures – View of Noordwijk Oil on panel (parquetted). 35.5 x 58 cm. Signed lower centre: Johannes Vermeer. Certificate Ellen Bernt, April 1981. Provenance Coll. Max Kellner Collection, Vienna. – Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, 3 December 1929, lot 11. – Kunsthandel Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, April-May 1930. – Salomon van Oss, The Hague, before 1944. – Abraham Nijstad, Lochem/The Hague, through 1944. – J. G. Wigman, Amsterdam, until 1944. – Acquired there on 7 June 1944 for by Dr Erhard Göpel for the Sonderauftrag Linz collection, Linz no. 3689. – Führerbau, Munich, February - end of April 1945, stolen. – Private collection, Munich. - Kurt Kaiser, Munich. – Acquired there in 1982 by the father of the current owner. – 2026 amicable settlement reached with the heirs of Abraham Nijstad. Exhibitions Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, Kunsthandel Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1930, no. 62. Literature Exh.-Cat. Amsterdam 1930: Catalogue des Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, no. 62 with ill. – Die Kunstauktion. Internat. Nachrichtenblatt des gesamten Kunstmarktes, IV, no. 20 (1930), p. 9. – H. Ch. Löhr: Das Braune Haus der Kunst. Hitler und der "Sonderauftrag Linz", Berlin 2005, ill. p.379. Jan Vermeer van Haarlem the Elder ranks among the leading figures of Dutch landscape painting. The present work unfolds a panorama beneath a dramatically clouded sky, combining topographical observation with a sensitivity to light and atmosphere. A wooded rise opens onto the landscape beyond. A traveller carrying a sack over his shoulder descends the slope, while a shepherd tends his cattle on the sunlit crest. In the warm raking light along the horizon, the silhouette of a settlement with a prominent church tower comes into view. Its distinctive architecture permits the identification of the site as Noordwijk-Binnen, with the Oude Jeroenskerk. A signed and dated 'View of Noordwijk' in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (fig. 1, inv. no. 1502), depicts the church from the opposite direction. An amicable settlement has been reached with the heirs of Abraham Nijstad. For comparative illustrations, see the printed catalogue as well as the PDF version.