£5,000 - £8,000
Claude de Jonghe (Dutch, 1605-1663)
A pastoral landscape with a view of the Thames Valley and Caversham Bridge
Oil in blue and white monochrome on canvas
In a good carved and gilded antique frame
Provenance:
Acquired by the previous owner circa 1955;
Christopher Gibbs FSA (1938-2018), purchased from the above 2002
Literature:
c.f. John Hayes, Burlington Magazine, XCVIII, 1956, pp. 3ff
This is an exceptionally rare English topographical view painted during the second quarter of the 17th century by Claude de Jonghe, a painter from Utrecht.
It is a view of the Thames Valley and Caversham Bridge, which was at the time a strategically very important Thames crossing, near Reading. The bridge was partially demolished during the English Civil War, after the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642, when parliamentary forces, possibly led by Henry Martin, prevented King Charles I from reaching Reading by bringing down the bridge. The king ordered its immediate repair and in 1644, after a short skirmish at the bridge in 1643, work began, continuing sporadically until February 1646. The painting may therefore be dated to after the breaking of the bridge in 1642, and before de Jonghe's departure to Utrecht in 1643. Stylistically it is very similar to a signed and dated landscape by de Jonghe from 1645. This first bridge was completely demolished in 1868.
De Jonghe’s painting style is highly idiosyncratic, and it is hard to establish who his Master might have been. He was most likely accepted as a member of the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke by 1626 and is recorded by Wurzbach as moving to London shortly afterwards. He is recorded in Canterbury in 1627 and a view of London Bridge dated 1630 is recorded. He was certainly back in Utrecht in 1643, where he married Juliana van Pisa in July that year. Other views of the Bridge and the Thames are recorded as dated 1639 and 1650.
Dimensions:
(Frame) 19.5 in. (H) x 27 in. (W)
(Canvas) 15.5 in. (H) x 23 in. (W)
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