ADRIANUS EVERSEN (Amsterdam 1818 – Delft 1897)
A Dutch Market in the Summertime
signed A. Eversen in the lower left
oil on canvas
17.7 x 21.7 inches (45 x 55.2 cm)
PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, New York, October 27, 1982, lot 226
MacConnal-Mason Gallery, London, where acquired by
Private Collection, Virginia, circa 1985 until the present time
LITERATURE
Pieter Overduin, Adrianus Eversen, 1818 – 1897: Schilder van stads-en dorpsgezichten, Wijk en Aalburg, circa 2010, catalog no. 45-2, illustrated
When thinking of the artist Adrianus Eversen one immediately conjures up images of lovely Dutch street scenes bathed in sunlight, of which our painting is a prime example. A bustling market scene is depicted under summer skies along a street filled with seventeenth century buildings. The pavement is comprised of cobblestones. A small brown and white dog is in the center foreground and serves as a focal point to bring the viewer into the composition. White birds fly overhead. Favored architectural elements of Eversen, as shown here, were church spires and different types of ornamental gables. In this work he has included the step gable as well as a spout gable. A true Romantic artist, and “endowed with an unbridled imagination, Eversen was not primarily concerned with an exact reproduction of reality.” [1] Thus, this scene does not represent an identifiable place, but instead is an amalgamation of beloved buildings and vignettes.
Eversen began his training sometime before 1840 with Cornelis de Kruyff. Around 1840 he became a pupil of Hendrik Gerrit ten Cate. After 1840 he studied with Cornelis Springer who became his mentor. According to family tradition they also eventually shared a studio. Eversen worked in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Delft. He became a member of the artists’ association, “Arte and Amicitiae”, in 1863. He regularly journeyed throughout Holland gathering material and took part in contemporary art exhibitions. The sustained popularity of the artist is attested to by the number of museums in which Eversen’s works hang. [2] These include museums in the cities of Amsterdam, Boston, Cheltenham, Cologne, Enkhuizen, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Rotterdam, Sacramento and Weimar among others.