Road by the Edge of a Lake
Jan Dirksz Bothc.1637-42
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom
Jan Both was one of the most influential and important of the Dutch Italianate painters, based in Utrecht. He had certainly travelled to Italy, between 1638 and 1641. This picture was probably painted when Both was in Rome.
His older brother, Andries (born c.1612), also a painter, drowned tragically in a Venetian canal in 1642. The broad characterisation and handling of the figures seems to contrast with the delicacy of the landscape detail which has led to suggestions that Andries might be responsible for them. Jan Both is known to have collaborated with figure painters on some works, but in this case the evidence is not conclusive.
- Title: Road by the Edge of a Lake
- Creator Lifespan: c.1615 - 1652
- Date: c.1637-42
- Physical Dimensions: w513 x h572 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil
- Work Nationality: Dutch
- Support: Panel
- Provenance: Paris, Poullain, Antoine (Moitte Cat. 1781, no. 62, as by Both and Moucheron) [Lugt 3106 gives a Poullain, dec'd in 1780, 'Receveur general des Domaines du Roi']; London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
- Further Information: While the Italianate landscape basked in golden light proposes that the painting dated from Both’s period in Rome between c. 1638 and 1642, that it is on oak panel would suggest it was painted in Northern Europe, where such wood was indigenous. It was believed that Both’s Road by the Edge of a Lakeformed a pair with the artist’sItalian Landscape (DPG10), also in the Dulwich’s collection. While they surely complement one another aesthetically, it is unlikely that Both conceived them as a pair.
- Artist: Both, Jan
- Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)
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