signed 'J Maris' (lower left)

oil on canvas, 73x88 cm

Exhibited:
-Amsterdam, Kunsthandel E.J. van Wisselingh, 'Tentoonstelling Jacob Maris', September 1898, no. 15, with. ill.
-The Hague, Pulchri Studio, 'Eeretentoonstelling Jacob Maris', October 1899, no. 81.
-Amsterdam, Arti et Amiticiae, 'Eeretentoonstelling Jacob Maris', December 1899, no. 68.

Literature:
-Th. d Bock, 'Jacob Maris', Amsterdam 1902-1903, ill. p. 137.
-Pieter A. Scheen, 'Lexicon Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars 1750-1880', The Hague 1981, ill. no. 504, as: 'Gezicht op de Koepelkerk te Amsterdam'.

Provenance:
-Collection Dr. W.J. Leijds, Brussels.
-Collection Mr. Anton J. Verbrugge, 1901.
-With Knoedler Galleries, New York.
-With C. and S. Keck, New York.
-With Kunsthandel Pieter Scheen, The Hague.

Trained at the Hague and Antwerp Academy of Art, Jacob Maris settled permanently in The Hague after his stay in Paris from 1865-1871. In the 1860s he had visited Oosterbeek, ‘the Dutch Barbizon’, together with his brother Matthijs. There, he was inspired by the spontaneous plein air landscape paintings by Mauve and Bilders. Back in The Hague after his Paris stay, his brush stroke became broader and his use of colour more atmospheric and subdued. As a key member of the artists’ society Pulchri Studio, Maris became an influential leader of the Hague School movement. The artist and writer Philippe Zilcken praised Jacob Maris as the best painter of ‘ ethereal effects, bathed in air and light through a floating silvery mist, in which painters delight, and the characteristic remote horizons blurred by haze; or again, the grey yet luminous weather of Holland, unlike the dead grey rain of England or the heavy sky of Paris.’

Jacob Maris’ work was soon well sought-after, also by Canadian, British and American collectors. The Frick collection in New York shows a wonderful example of Maris’ mastery skills; it is shown next to masters as Rembrandt, Rubens, Titiaan and Degas.

The current lot, depicting the Amsterdam skyline, is one of the best examples of his sophisticated mastership.

A Distinguished Collection: lots 105-141.