Jan van Goyen

Jan van Goyen
1596 – 1656
Landscape with Peasants
Oil on canvas
33 x 24 cm; with frame 49.5 x 39 cm
Provenance: Charles Sedelmeyer Art Gallery, Vienna, 1873, no. 66; Art Dealership, London; Auction, Christie’s, London, April 25, 2001, Lot 67; Auction, Dorotheum, Vienna, October 3, 2001, Lot 240; Private Collection, Vienna; Auction, Dorotheum, Vienna, May 11, 2022, Lot 84; Vienna Private Collection of Dr. Adrian Hollaender

Hollaender Collection
This collection of renowned Old Masters, built up over many years with both expertise and good taste, comes from the home of the well – known Viennese lawyer, author (e.g., “Pavarotti – Addio Luciano,” “Legends and Stars of Opera”), and cultural manager Dr. Adrian Hollaender.
Having grown up in a distinctly artistic environment, where his parents—the actress and artist manager Univ. – Prof. Ariane Hollaender – Calix, and the legendary long – time director of the Vienna State Opera, Ioan Holender, stood out as avid art lovers and collectors, Dr. Adrian Hollaender established himself as a collector of outstanding masterpieces of painting.
His collection, now being offered exclusively for auction at Tiberius Auction House, comprises select works by famous Italian masters, such as Andrea Vaccaro’s well – known Old Testament painting “Abraham dismissing Hagar and Ishmael,” which bears his monogram; Sassoferrato’s atmospheric “Madonna in Prayer” or old Venetian masterpieces by Nicolò Bambini and Francesco Corneliani and the legendary Il Mirandolese, through impressive portraits by the Turin master painter La Clementina, to Dutch masters such as van Goyen and Pieter Wtewael, as well as, as special additions, an old French tapestry and a typical Matisse.

Jan van Goyen is considered one of the most significant landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. After his training in Leiden, he developed into one of the defining artists of so – called tonal landscape painting, characterized by a reduced color palette and an atmospherically dense rendering of nature. Van Goyen was extraordinarily prolific and created an extensive body of work that stands out above all for its innovative treatment of light, space, and mood. Instead of detailed individual depictions, he employed a simplified composition aimed at the overall effect, which guides the viewer’s gaze into the vastness of the landscape.
This painting takes up a theme typical of Van Goyen: the depiction of a rural scene with simple figures, embedded in expansive nature. Such depictions reflect not only the Dutch interest in the native landscape but also a new appreciation of the everyday. The figures function less as main characters than as enlivening elements that highlight the scale of the landscape and introduce a narrative component.
At the center of the composition, in the middle ground, stands a striking group of trees consisting of four trunks tightly intertwined. The trees appear almost twisted in their growth and reveal partially exposed roots that dig into the stony terrain. Directly behind them rise rock formations that mark the transition to the open horizon. Above them stretches a vast sky, its bluish hue interspersed with dense, moving clouds. In the foreground, a river winds through the landscape, accompanied by additional rocky sections that structure the scene. Two figures are depicted on the right: one sits on the ground, wearing a wide – brimmed hat and with a fishing rod slung over his shoulder, while the second figure kneels before him, apparently tending to his equipment. The entire scene is rendered in subdued, harmoniously coordinated earth tones—shades of brown, green, and gray dominate, lending the painting a calm, almost meditative atmosphere.
Van Goyen’s significance for the development of Dutch landscape painting lies particularly in his consistent reduction of color and detail in favor of a unified tonal effect. His style influenced numerous contemporaries and followers of his style and contributed significantly to the establishment of the landscape as an independent genre. Upon closer inspection, the apparent simplicity of his compositions reveals itself to be the result of a highly developed painterly sensibility that balances light, space, and the observation of nature. This makes van Goyen one of the central figures of 17th – century European landscape painting.
Bibliography: Hans – Ulrich Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596 – 1656. A catalogue raisonné in two volumes, Amsterdam, 1973, Vol. II, p. 96, no. 200a.