09 Works, January 13th is Jan van Goyen's day, his story, illustrated #013

Jan van Goyen, (1596–1656)

Detail; The skater, c. 1641

I have no further description, at this time

Jan van Goyen, Goyen also spelled Goijen, in full Jan Josephszoon van Goyen, (born January 13, 1596, Leiden, Netherlands—died April 27, 1656, The Hague) was a Dutch landscape painter. Like many Dutch painters of his time, Jan van Goyen studied art in the town of Haarlem. At age 35, he established a permanent studio at The Hague. Van Goyen's landscape paintings rarely fetched high prices, but he made up for the modest value of individual pieces by increasing his production, painting thinly and quickly with a limited palette of inexpensive pigments. 

Jan van Goyen, (1596–1656)

Castle by a River, c. 1647

Oil on wood

26 x 38 1/4 in. (66 x 97.2 cm)

 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This scene of fishermen casting their net in front of a moated fortress catered to a taste for picturesque and ancient architecture. Working on the smooth surface of an oak panel allowed Van Goyen to achieve a variety of painterly effects and enliven a limited color palette as he evoked crumbling masonry, rippling water, or cottony clouds. Although the artist studied medieval monuments in preparing such scenes, the castle shown here is imaginary, pieced together from both observation and fantasy. More on this work

Jan van Goyen, (1596–1656)

FISHING BOATS MOORED AT AN EMBANKMENT, c. 1640

Oil on panel

14 1/2 by 22 in.; 36.8 by 55.9 cm

Private collection

This peaceful river estuary scene, in which fishermen are busy at work on their moored vessels unloading their catch, is typical of Van Goyen's output from 1638 to circa 1640 when his landscapes are characterised by a dominant silvery-grey tonality, interspersed with local color, here in the sky and embankment. It pre-dates the austerly monochromatic landscapes on the middle to late 1640s, always intensely horizontal in format, in which a yellowy golden brown tone usually predominates. More on this work

Despite his market innovations, he always sought more income, not only through related work as an art dealer and auctioneer but also by speculating in tulips and real estate. Although the latter was usually a safe avenue of investing money, in van Goyen's experience it led to enormous debts. Though he seems to have kept a workshop.

Jan van Goyen, (1596–1656)

Fishing Boats in an Estuary at Dusk, circa 1643

Oil on panel

25.5 × 30.5 cm (10 × 12 in)

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

At dusk, a thunderstorm threatens to break in a cloud-filled sky. On the left, a small sprit-rigged vessel, crammed with fishermen, bobs gently in the water. Her sprit-sail is half lowered as she runs before the wind. This vessel flies the Dutch flag and serves as an introduction to the composition. Next to it, three men pull a heavily laden rowing boat through the water towards her. They are huddled against the stiff breeze with the waves high around them. The sails of other boats billow in the strong breeze. More on this painting

Jan van Goyen, (1596–1656)

Niederländische Uferlandschaft mit Segelschiffen und Fährboot/ Dutch riverside landscape with sailing ships and ferry boats

Oil on panel

45 x 64 cm. 

Private collection

van Goyen chiefly confined himself to the scenery of Holland. Mostly painted in oil on wood panels, his landscapes are largely preoccupied in capturing the muted moods of sky and water. He often represented the reaches of the Rhine, Waal, and Maas rivers and sometimes painted the dunes of Scheveningen or the sea at the mouth of the Rhine and Schelde. He liked to depict the tranquillity of river life and inshore calm, rarely painting seas stirred by more than a slight breeze. 

Jan van Goyen  (1596–1656)

Dune, c. 1629

Oil on oak wood

Height: 29 cm (11.4 in); Width: 51 cm (20 in)

Berlin State Museums

His Dunes (1629) shows a typical day on the lowland reclaimed from the sea, with several peasants stopping to chat. The cloudy sky, dunes, and battered old homes are picturesquely arranged.

Jan van Goyen  (1596–1656)

River Landscape with the Hooglandsekerk of Leiden, c. 1643

Oil on panel

Height: 39 cm (15.3 in); Width: 59.9 cm (23.5 in)

Alte Pinakothek,  Munich, Germany

Van Goyen also excelled in panoramas of Dutch cities, favouring views of Leiden and The Hague.

Jan van Goyen  (1596–1656)

Winter Landscape with Castle Montfoort, c. 1634

Oil on panel

Height: 55.9 cm (22 in); Width: 91.5 cm (36 in)

Private collection

In 1652 and 1654 he was forced to sell his collection of paintings and graphic art, and he subsequently moved to a smaller house. He died in 1656 in The Hague, still unbelievably 18,000 guilders in debt, forcing his widow to sell their remaining furniture and paintings. 

Typically, a Dutch painter of the 17th century (also known as the Dutch Golden Age) will fall into one of four categories, a painter of portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, or genre. Dutch painting was highly specialized and rarely could an artist hope to achieve greatness in more than one area in a lifetime of painting. Jan van Goyen would be classified primarily as a landscape artist with an eye for the genre subjects of everyday life. 

Jan van Goyen  (1596–1656)

An Evening River Landscape with a Ferry, c. 1643

Oil paint, oak

Length: 61 cm (24 in); Height: 41 cm (16.1 in)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg

He painted many of the canals in and around Den Haag as well as the villages surrounding countryside of Delft, Rotterdam, Leiden, and Gouda. Other popular Dutch landscape painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth century were Jacob van Ruisdael, Aelbert Cuyp, Hendrick Avercamp, Ludolf Backhuysen, Meindert Hobbema, Aert van der Neer. More on Jan van Goyen

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