Provenance
Edward George Spencer-Churchill, Northwick Park and Cheltenham; Coghlan Briscoe, Dublin; J.H.J. Mellaart; Hendrikus Egbertus ten Cate, Almelo; [C. G. Boerner, Inc., Düsseldorf] (1966 ); Edward George Spencer-Churchill, Northwick Park and Cheltenham (L. Suppl. 2709a, not stamped) (according to Boerner cat. Nov. 1966, no. 64). Coghlan Briscoe, Dublin (L. Suppl. 347c, not stamped) (according to Boerner cat. Nov. 1966, no. 64). J.H.J. Mellaart (not stamped, not in Lugt) (according to Hannema 1955, vol. 1, p. 148, cat. no. 264). Hendrikus Egbertus ten Cate, Almelo (L. Suppl. 533b, not stamped, D. Hannema, Catalogue of the H.E. ten Cate Collection, 2 vols. (Rotterdam, 1955), vol. 1, p. 148, cat. no. 264, vol. 2, pl. 95). [C. G. Boerner, Inc., Düsseldorf] (cat. Jan. 1966, no. 21, pl. 8; cat. Nov. 1966, no. 64, pl. 36)
Accession Number
1967.23
Medium
black chalk and brush and brown wash; framing lines in black ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 35.8 x 51.9 cm (14 1/8 x 20 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 35.8 x 51.9 cm (14 1/8 x 20 7/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Delia E. Holden Fund
Tags
Drawing Baroque (1600–1750) Ink Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Jacob van Mosscher (c. 1605-1655) was a Dutch painter known for the precisely observed landscape paintings with peasant figures that make him one of the most important painters of the early Dutch landscape tradition. Peasants at the Edge of a Wood from c. 1630 depicts peasants at the edge of a wood in the precisely observed manner that distinguishes van Mosscher's best work from the more mannered landscape painting of his predecessors. The c. 1630 date places this in the early period of Dutch landscape painting, when painters were developing the naturalistic, precisely observed manner that would become one of the most important traditions in Dutch Golden Age painting.
Cultural Impact
Peasants at the Edge of a Wood is important in the history of Dutch landscape painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed manner that van Mosscher brought to landscape as one of the most important painters of the early Dutch landscape tradition. Van Mosscher's precisely observed landscapes—with their naturalistic depiction of peasants in the Dutch landscape—represent one of the early developments in the Dutch landscape tradition that would become one of the most important genres of Dutch Golden Age painting, and the c. 1630 painting shows this development at its earliest phase.
Why It Matters
Peasants at the Edge of a Wood is van Mosscher's early Dutch landscape: peasants at the edge of a wood rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most important painters of the early Dutch landscape tradition. The c. 1630 painting shows the early development of the naturalistic landscape tradition that would become one of the most important genres of Dutch Golden Age painting.
