Antwerp 1525/26 – Antwerp before 1590
A Pair of Landscapes with view of a Village and a Castle
Oil on panel
H. 17,3 cm. W. 29 cm.
PROVENANCE
Private collection | The Netherlands
REFERENCE LITERATURE
Berthier de Sauvigny, R. (1991). Jacob et Abel Grimmer. Catalogue raisonné. Brussels
CATALOGUE NOTE
Jacob Grimmer’s rural scenes and landscapes of views around Antwerp marked an important development in 16th century Flemish landscape painting away from the landscapes with fantastic panoramas. Reine de Bertier de Sauvigny compares this pair of landscapes in a written communication dated 15 October 1979 to a painting by Jacob Grimmer in the collection of the Museum in Enschede. According to her this painting with the same measurements possibly belongs to the same series of landscapes.
Jacob Grimmer was the son of Nicolaas Grimmer and Elisabeth Cops. The only documentary about his training is his written registration in 1539 under the name Jaques Grimmer in the liggeren of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a student of Gabriël Bouwens. He became master of the guild in 1547. Jacob Grimmer married Lucia van de Wouwer in 1548. Of the four children of this marriage, Abel became an important landscape an architectural painter.
Jacob was principally a painter of landscapes and winter scenes although he also painted some themed works such as the Tower of babel. He often returned to the subject of the Four Seasons or the Twelve Months. His earliest dated work was dated 1546 and the latest works from 1589. As was common practice in the Antwerp art sector, Jacob Grimmer often collaborated with other specialist as Marten van Cleve and Gillis Mostaert, who painted the staffage in his landscapes. As early as 1550, Jacob Grimmer was praised by the famous Italian historian Vasari as one of the best landscape painters of his time. He was appreciated by his contemporaries and also by artists of the next generation. Rembrandt’s inventory of 1656 included a winter landscape by Jacob Grimmer.