Provenance :
• collection P. de Boer, Amsterdam, around 1950;
• private collection.
These two marine paintings are a fine testimony to the powerful sentiments evoked by confrontation with...
read moreProvenance :
• collection P. de Boer, Amsterdam, around 1950;
• private collection.
These two marine paintings are a fine testimony to the powerful sentiments evoked by confrontation with nature and with the sea in particular. In a country virtually dependent on the sea for all trade, it forms an element of prime importance and here, like nowhere else, captured the imaginations of men and of artists especially. The sense of fear that the sea has always elicited has at the same time given rise to dreams of mastering its power and of adventures that the painters working in this newly invented genre ingeniously brought to life, not without occasionally lapsing into a certain romanesque and fantastical vein. Hans Goderis did not depict warships but preferred fishing craft and the smaller boats used chiefly for inland navigation. He was far more interested in the bustling activity on the water and at the shore, than in the fleet of the Republic or the ships of the India Companies. The first marine under consideration here, the Boats in a storm, is particularly striking with its oppressive sky and cloud formations whose colours range from grey-blue to silver-white. In the face of the raging sea, the masts and sails of the fishing boats give an impression of extreme fragility. The transition between the air and the water is captured with remarkable skill. At the same time, the movement of the storm, the wild whirlwinds with their billowing clouds and the foam-capped waves are rendered with great finesse and subtlety.
The second marine, A calm sea, features a foreground accented by the figures of fishermen and a boat, dark coloured elements that create a sense of depth beyond them, according to a process popularised by the marine painters Jan van de Cappelle and Simon de Vlieger. In the calm waters, the porpoises are more a device for filling out the composition than a topographical indicator. The gently lapping sea disappears into the mist; the sky, almost completely overcast with grey clouds, occupies three-quarters of the picture plane. The hazy atmosphere and the surface of the water that gently reflects the tiny silhouettes busily moving about the water’s edge are all elements that embody the simplicity of the premise for the scene, lending it an unassuming poetry.
Aside from the atmospheric effects, Goderis, with an intimate and confessional poetic sensibility, has here created paintings of tremendous evocative poetic power that are full of meditative tension.
Around 1600 - Haarlem – before 1642
A Flemish painter active in Haarlem, Hans Goderis joined the Guild of Saint Luke in 1623. Very few of his works survive today. The earliest known work, Boats on...
read moreAround 1600 - Haarlem – before 1642
A Flemish painter active in Haarlem, Hans Goderis joined the Guild of Saint Luke in 1623. Very few of his works survive today. The earliest known work, Boats on an estuary, signed and dated 1625, is currently at the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam. A certificate of payment issued by the magistrate Cornelis Guldewagen for a painting dated 1632 has been preserved but the corresponding work has not been located. In his monograph published in 1648, Theodor Schrevell states that between 1622 and 1624, Goderis was a student of Jan Porcellis, the chief proponent of a particularly rich tradition in “marines”. The marines attributed to Goderis adopt the master’s simple subjects and tonal style featuring blues, greys and burnt ochres. Small ships in a light breeze off the coast of Dordrecht (Christie’s, London, 12 April 1985, lot 140) uses a composition derived from a collection of engravings known under the title of Icones variarum navium Hollandicarum, published in Amsterdam in 1627, based on the drawings of Porcellis. Goderis preferred to work on small-format panels with dimensions averaging around 30 x 50 cm; some were painted in oval or circular format. His scenes, showing many boats with cities in the distance would have been well suited for larger scale treatment. By placing small figures in the foreground or using other devices for creating a sense of depth in his maritime views, Goderis intensifies the sense of space as in, for example, his Three-master and other ships dated 1628 and in the collection of the Von der Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal. His fine brushwork is characterised by a subtle varnished finish.
