1219 - Herman van Swanevelt

Herman van Swanevelt River landscape with figures Oil on canvas (relined). 94.5 x 161 cm. Signed and dated lower left: SWANEVELT PARIS 164[4]. Certificate Prof. Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome, 3.1.2018. Provenance Private collection, Italy. The present landscape is a typical work for Swanevelt in the use of light and the compositional elements, as noted by Professor Sestieri. The trees frame the composition and enhance monumentality to it, acting as repoussoir elements and introducing the viewer to an idyllic landscape.   Swanevelt's main interest was not to represent sites in their topographical accuracy but to depict the essential and typical aspects of Rome's surrounding area, in which he travelled extensively. Starting from Paul Brill and Cornelis Poelenburgh's examples, the painter developed the genre of ideal landscapes, translating the northern models to a more Italianate style and anticipating Claude Lorrain. Despite his prominent artistic profile, there is not much information on Swanevelt's life: it is generally assumed that he studied with Willem Buytewec; after a stay in Paris (1620s), he moved to Rome in 1629, where he became very popular and attracted significant commissions from the Barberini, Pope Urban VIII, the Colonna, the Pallavicini, and even Philipp IV of Spain. He returned to Paris for the last years of his life: among his French patrons were Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIV, to whom he was appointed peintre ordinaire. In 1653, he was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. The present canvas dates to 164[4] a mature work; it represents an important document to state how, back in Paris, Swanevelt successfully continued to visit the genre of Italianate landscapes.