Paysage avec animaux
Jan van Goyen·1700
Historical Context
The Paysage avec animaux (Landscape with Animals) attributed to Jan van Goyen and dated around 1700 falls after van Goyen's death in 1656. Van Goyen was one of the greatest Dutch landscape painters of the seventeenth century, known for his monochromatic, atmospheric river and coastal views. A landscape with animals dated 1700 would be a work by a follower in the tradition of Dutch tonal landscape, or possibly a misattribution. The tonalist Dutch landscape tradition van Goyen founded continued well into the eighteenth century through followers.
Technical Analysis
The van Goyen manner is characterized by its restricted tonal palette — golden-brown, silver-gray, and sky blue — applied in fluid, transparent layers that create extraordinary atmospheric depth. Animals placed within such a landscape would be rendered with the same rapid, notational certainty as all other elements.
