D2598. Painting of Strollers in a Forest Landscape

Delft, circa 1680

Oil on panel. Signed in the lower right corner F.V.Frytom for Frederik van Frytom (circa 1632-1702)

In a vibrant woodland landscape, two figures take center stage as they stroll together. In the distance, two more individuals emerge strolling between the trees.

DIMENSIONS
52.7 x 47.2 cm (20.6 x 19.6 in.)

PROVENANCE
Frisian Private Collection

EXHIBITION
Exhibited at ‘From Ruisdael through Frytom,’ Royal Delft Museum, De Porceleyne Fles, November 2022 – March 2023 and discussed and illustrated in the accompanying publication

NOTE
Grand landscapes with imposing gnarled trees and dramatic cloud formations, in which small figures are almost completely lost, are typical for Van Frytom. He depicts the wild woodland and uncivilized side of nature; landscapes in which there are usually a few people. People are pictured primarily to emphasize their insignificance compared to the grandeur of nature. The landscapes on canvas, panel and earthenware also show the vastness of the Dutch landscape, in which people were assuming a more central role. The landscapes with their characteristic huge trees serve as a backdrop for farms, bridges and windmills, in which figures are depicted on foot, rowing or on horseback. These landscapes depict human life surrounded by nature. The landscape is the familiar environment of people going about their daily business. An inhabited and cultivated land, but one that remains natural in its vastness and rich vegetation.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
Based on publications on Van Frytom’s work, only seven paintings bearing Van Frytom’s signature are known. They have been signed with or his initials or with his surname in full and bear Van Frytom’s stylistic characteristics. Two pendants painted on panel, of which one has been signed, at the time of the year of publication in the collection of Earl Lennart Bernadotte, Insel Mainau, are illustrated in Nieuwstraten 1969, p. 12 & 13, nos. 7 & 8. In this same publication another signed panel is mentioned, at the time in the collection of Mrs. F. B. Adams in Northampton, U.S.A. The forth painting, the canvas signed F.V.F, is in the collection of the Prinsenhof Museum in Delft, which acquired this forest landscape in 1981 from Nijstad Antiquairs (inv. no. PDS 170). Another painting on panel, bearing Van Frytom’s signature, was sold at Lempertz, Cologne in 1990. A sixth signed painting, also on canvas, with the depiction of a landscape with trees, a farmhouse, mill and church tower and a brook running through the middle, illustrated in Aronson 1990, no. 32, is now in a Belgian private collection. Further, there are nine other paintings, which are widely accepted to be by his hand, and two paintings which have recently been attributed to him. Thorough historical, scientific and technical research has enabled experts to attach the name of the real artist to works which had previously been erroneously ascribed to other masters. The majority of these works is in private collections, one is in the collection of Kunstmuseum Basel and another one was part of the collection of the Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum – Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest, but has been lost during World War II.