JAN HENDRIK VERHEYEN (Utrecht 1778- Utrecht 1846)
A Dutch Street Scene Along a Canal
signed and dated J. H. Verheyen (with the first three initials conjoined) f. 1811 in the
lower left on the right stone base of the sluis
oil on panel
20 1/4 x 26 inches (53 x 66 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Frost & Reed, London, 1930s where acquired by
Private Collection, London and thus by descent to
Private Collection, Massachusetts until 2008 from whom acquired by
Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York, where purchased by
Private Collection, Washington, D.C., 2009 – 2013
With Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York, 2013 from whom acquired by
Private Collection, New Jersey, 2013 until the present time
LITERATURE
New York, Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, Portraits and Other Recent Acquisitions, 2009, no. 26
The visual feast Jan Hendrik Verheyen has laid before us is one of pure fantasy. The artist adhering to the principles of Romanticism, a movement that lacked a specific style but embraced an attitude that swerved from reality into dreams, has blended the real and imaginary into a representational townscape.
This panel is a capriccio of an ideal town in which certain elements are based on existing architecture while others are strictly inventions. The amazing central structure which surely never existed, displays architectural elements from Holland, Flanders, Germany and Italy among others. Another oddity is the large church at the far right, which consists only of a Gothic choir (similar to that of St. John's Cathedral in Bois-le-Duc) without a main building, but including a tower which would normally be found on a small seventeenth century Dutch church. In their quest for new empirical truths the Romantics observed everything acutely. Just as Verheyen applied minute observation to the architectural components re-created to form a fictional whole, an exacting amount of attention has been paid in the individualizing of the faces, costumes and actions of the multiple figures which populate the scene, all levels of society and age groups are represented living in harmony.[1] The crystalline clarity of the light serves to further underline the idealization of the scene. It is an exuberant example of the transformation of eighteenth-century Holland's passion for realistic topographical painting and drawings, also characterized by meticulous attention to detail, into a more Romantic reproach at the start of the nineteenth century.
Verheyen began a career as a notary, but gave it up at the age of twenty-one to devote himself to painting. His first instructor was Nicolaas Osti of Utrecht, who specialized in painting carriages and ornaments. This was followed by a period of self-instruction in which he devoted himself to an intense study of nature and copying works by Jan van der Heyden as well as Job and Gerrit Berckheyde, to whom the artist's architectural scenes are indebted. He joined the Amsterdam Academy in 1822. Although Verheyen painted landscapes and portraits, the majority of his output was devoted to townscapes and it is those works that are most prized. The views are mainly imaginary, but a few to a certain degree are topographically correct, such as the View of the Chancel and Tower of the Domkerk in Utrecht in the Centraal Museum. Other museums where the artist's work can be found include those of Amsterdam, Boston, Cheltenham, Glasgow, The Hague, London, the Pierpont Morgan Library as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Otterlo and Rotterdam.[2]
We are indebted to Charles Dumas for his invaluable assistance in the writing of this entry.
[1] Robert Rosenblum, 19th Century Art, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1984, pp. 78-79.
[2] Biographical information taken from John Denison Champlin, Jr. & Charles C. Perkins, "Jan Hendrik Verheyden" in Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, vol. IV, 1900, p. 352; Dr. Ulrich Thieme & Dr. Felix Becker, "Jan Hendrik Verheyen" in Allgemaines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, Veb, E. A. Seeman Verlag, Leipzig, vol. XXXIV, 1908, p. 253; and Pieter A. Scheen, "Jan Hendrik Verheijen" in Lexicon Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars I750-I880, s'Gravenhage, 1981, p. 540.