Italian Park
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 61 x 74 cm h x w x d: Ram 75,5 x 86 x 9 cm
Inventory numberNM 332
Other titlesTitle (sv): Italiensk park Title (en): Italian Park
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 6: Technical notes: The support consists of a single piece of fabric. The painting has been lined with a canvas of coarse linen. All four tacking edges have been trimmed. The painting is mounted on a strainer that is probably not original. The ground is even and thickly applied and completely covers the texture of the support. The figures in the foreground are painted in broad brushstrokes. They have been painted directly on to the underlying layer in the foreground. The palette consists mainly of earth pigments with traces of red and blue pigments. Pentimenti can be seen in the urn in the middle of the bridge. The condition of the painting is poor with extensive craquelure and cracks in the paint layer. On the reverse of the picture there is a label in sepia: “Orrizonte, Campagna” as well as a printed label from the Royal Museum No. 361. The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1935, 1956, 1967 and 1995. Provenance: Martelli 1804, no. 268; KM 1816, no. 361. Exhibited: Copenhagen 1956, no. 24. Bibliography: Sander III, p. 117, no. 268 (as Orrizonte); NM Cat. 1867, p. 23 (as Jan Frans van Bloemen); Göthe 1887, p. 18; Göthe 1893, p. 23; NM Cat. 1958, p. 17 (as Jan Frans van Bloemen); NM Cat. 1990, p. 31 (as Jan Frans van Bloemen): Norlander and Marander 2003, pp. 81, 83 (as Jan Frans van Bloemen). Italianate landscape became a popular theme during the 17th century and lasted well into the 18th century. Van Bloemen belonged to the last generation of Italianate landscapists able to enjoy a good market for their works. His paintings carried on the tradition of Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain and most of all that of Gaspar Dughet. His style was light and decorative and his landscapes decorated many Dutch homes. Young aristocrats, especially the British Grand Tour travellers, liked to buy Van Bloemen’s pictures, evocations of the places they had visited. That is why so many of his paintings found their way to England. The six paintings ascribed to Van Bloemen in the Nationalmuseum all came with the Martelli collection in 1804. Some of these paintings, like this and cat. no. 7 are very characteristic of Van Bloemen with famous buildings in an imaginary countryside setting, in the pres- 28 ent painting the entrance to Villa D’Este. The compositions are generally well balanced and the figures are timeless, borrowed mainly from Dughet. In his works, as Salerno has observed, the colours are always varied and light and the handling of the paint itself is Italian; in other words, it has impasto and broad brushstrokes, characteristics generally absent from the work of the Italianate Northerners.1 In a contemporary work containing the biographies of artists Nicola Pio describes the works of Jan Frans van Bloemen in the following words: “Beautiful pictures done in such beautiful sites, with verdant foliages, limpid silver water and with an agreeableness of colour; accompanied by small figures of the utmost gracefulness, with rural dwellings and urns all so well assembled, that his pictures were welcomed into all the galleries of Italy”.2 GCB 1 Salerno 1977, pp. 807–809, 848–855. 2 Coekelberghs 1976 , p. 52. [End]
Collection
TechniquePainting
Object category
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