(Amsterdam 1627–1692) River landscape with a horseman by a bridge, signed lower right: R. Roghman, oil on canvas, 115.6 x 170 cm, framed

Provenance: Duke Otto Thott Collection, Gavno/Denmark; Baron Axel Reedtz-Thott Collection, Schloss Gavno/Denmark; Christie’s auction, London, 09.07.1976, lot 32; Gallery Richard Feigen, New York; European private collection. Literature: C. A. Lorentzen, Catalogue of the Gavno Collection, 1785; J. Lange, Gavnos painterisamling, 1876, no. 56; K. Madsen and O. Andrup, painterisamling pa Gavno, 1914, no. 146; R. Juynboll, in: Thieme-Becker, vol. XXVIII, 1934, p. 518; W. Sumowski, Die Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. IV, 1989, no. 1664, pp. 2479 and 2482, ill. p. 2489; W. Th. Kloek, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman, vol. II, 1990, no. 21, p. 44; W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. X (in preparation), no. 2234. Roghman, who was a nephew of R. Savery, was on friendly terms with Rembrandt and G. van den Eeckhout. He was one of the best draughtsmen of his time, producing topographical images and ideal landscapes. His unusual paintings and the well-balanced compositions of his ideal landscapes are masterpieces of their genres. Sumowski says of them, “Again perfection is achieved in self-repetition without self-copying...”. The present monumental landscape is an impressive and typical exemplar of Roghman’s painterly oeuvre. It stands in reciprocal relationship with the landscape painting of G. van den Eeckhout, J. Lievens and P. Koninck. The light-dark contrast and the light brushstrokes in this painting also, however, demonstrate the influence of Rembrandt, with whom, according to Houbraken’s information, he was on close friendly terms. None of Roghman’s paintings is dated. It is known, nonetheless, that the painter undertook a longish journey in the middle of the 1650s which took him to France, Germany and Switzerland. By the time he returned to Amsterdam in 1658 he had presumably gathered a comprehensive array of sketched motifs.