Wooded Landscape with Figures

Pieter Jansz Van Asch was a Dutch artist born in Delft in 1603 and buried on June 6th of 1678 in the same city. The painter came from a family of artists; his father was Jan van Asch a prominent portraitist. P. J. van Asch developed his entire artistic career in the city of Delft and became part of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1623. He specialized in painting wooded landscapes with rivers that were very similar (albeit inferior and less academic) to the works by Ruysdael’s group (J. van Looten, A. Waterloo, A. Verboom). In his artworks, van Asch repeats the monotony of dark greens and uses refined technique to create each leaf on the trees. The painter tends to draw a low horizon line and therefore the sky takes up almost two thirds of the entire composition. Giving so much space to the sky creates a great perspective and sense of depth in the painting. The works are commonly painted using brown hues and are filled with light; therefore at times they can remind the viewer to works by Jan van Goyen. In some of van Asch’s works, the figures are painted by H. Verschuring.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• W. Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Phaidon, 1970, Vol. I, p. 3, plate 24
• Walter Liedtke, A View of Delft. Vermeer and his contemporaries, 2000, p. 29
• E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Vol. 1, p. 493 y 494
• All the paintings of the Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam, p. 88
• Christopher Wright  Dutch Painting in the Seventeenth Century Images of a Golden Age in British Collections p. 163

PROVENANCE

• Giorgio Caretto Gallery, Turín, 1970.
• Private Collection, Italy, from 1970 to 2008.
• Soraya Cartategui Gallery, Madrid, Spain.

MUSEUMS

Pieter Jansz van Asch’s works can be found in many museums around the world including: Amsterdam- Rijksmuseum, Delft- Stedelijk Museum, Dublín- National Gallery, Glasgow- Art Gallery, Rótterdam- Museum Boymans van Baeuningen, Utrecht- Centraal Museum, Barnard Castle – Bowes Museum