ADRIANUS EVERSEN (Amsterdam 1818 – Delft 1897)
A Winter Street Scene
signed and dated in the lower right A Eversen 57
oil on panel
10 ¾ x 9 inches (27.2 x 22.8 cm)
PROVENANCE
Unidentified Collector’s Seal on the reverse charged with a crown, shield, Dutch lions and other elements
Neumeister Münchener Kunstauktionhaus, Munich, 1976
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, February 8, 1985, lot 25
MacConnal-Mason & Son Ltd., London, where acquired by
Private Collection, Virginia, 1985, until the present time
LITERATURE
Pieter Overduin, Adrianus Eversen, 1818 – 1897: Schilder van stads-en dorpsgezichten, Wijk en Aalburg, circa 2010, p. 255, catalog no. 27-6, illustrated
Adrianus Eversen was famous for his “picturesque renderings of little streets with their charming houses”[1] for which A Winter Street Scene is a perfect example. The chill of the day is palpable in the bearing of the behatted stick-toting figure swiftly striding forth from the center of the composition. The setting is a street filled with old and somewhat downtrodden houses, exemplified by the missing roof tiles over the gateway and echoed in the state of the road’s disrepair. Snow clings to the edges of rooftops, shutters, and the sides of the road. Such detailing as the snow-encrusted windowpanes of the house on the right, the open window across the street, the interplay of the chimney braces, as well as the bird resting atop the gable near a stream of thinly rising smoke from a pipe, make the scene come alive. But it is the illumination of the sunlight flooding the center, triggering a dramatic play of light and shadow, casting an almost fairytale quality over the surroundings, that is its most magical feature. A true Romantic artist and “endowed with an unbridled imagination, Eversen was not primarily concerned with an exact reproduction of reality.” [2] 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. During the 1850s, the period in which our painting was done, is a time when Eversen is known to have been “regularly in the company” of Springer. 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. [3] These include museums in the cities of Amsterdam, Boston, Cheltenham, Cologne, Enkhuizen, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Rotterdam, Sacramento, and Weimar among others.