Willem Troost (Amsterdam 1684 – 1752 Amsterdam) after Jan Griffier I (Amsterdam 1652 – 1718 London)

An Imaginary Panoramic River Landscape with a Castle on a Hilltop

Bodycolour, black ink framing lines, 370 x 485 mm (14.6 x 19.1 inch)

Provenance
~ Collection F.J.E. Horstmann, Kasteel Oud Clingendaal, Wassenaar; his sale, Mensing et fils / Frederik Muller & Cie, 19 November 1929, lot 295: ‘J. Griffier – Vue de rivière serpentant à travers une vallée et longeant des rives montagneuses avec des vues de villes et des châteaux; au premier plan des embarcations – aquarelle encadrée. Haut. 38, larg. 49.5 cent’.
~ Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 6 November 2001, lot 126
~ Anonymous sale, Swann Galleries, New York, 24 January 2005, lot 133a
~ Private collection, The Netherlands

***

Willem Troost was baptised in Amsterdam on 24 February 1684, the son of Cornelis Troost (1647–1695) and Sarah van Eersel – Willem was the uncle of the celebrated painter Cornelis Troost (1696–1750).¹ Troost was taught the art of painting by Johannes Glauber, who specialised in Italianate landscapes, and Herman van der Mijn. Troost was patronised by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1658–1716), for whom he worked in his palaces in Düsseldorf and environs. He worked in Cologne from 1716 to 1728 and then in Duisburg and Essen, where he was employed by Princess von der Pfalz-Sulzbach, who commissioned him to paint portraits. Troost then spent some years in Cleves.

Willem married Jacoba Maria van Nickelen in Düsseldorf in 1714, the daughter of Jan van Nickelen, painter of church interiors. Willem and Jacoba were the parents of the painter Jan Hendrik Troost van Groenendoelen, who specialised in ‘behangsels’, decorative interior paintings. In 1735 Troost established his studio in the Veerstraat in Haarlem, and in 1752 he moved back to Amsterdam, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Few works by Willem Troost have survived, mostly imaginary panoramic landscapes painted in watercolour and bodycolour, reminiscent of view in the Rhine area of Germany. Some appear to be compositions by himself, while others are based on works by other artists, as seems to be the case with this gouache, which is related to an oil painting by Jan Griffier I (1652–1718).² Of all gouaches by Troost, the present work is the largest and most ambitious known, and Troost seems to have been particularly pleased with it, as it is also known from another version, offered at Christie’s in 1992.³ Intriguingly, this other version is proudly signed ‘W. TROOST I. & F.’, ‘invenit & fecit’, meaning ‘invented and made’, normally used for original compositions, rather than copies after other artists. The identical composition by Griffier therefore remains a mystery – did Griffier base his painting on Willem Troost’s composition, or was Troost not entirely accurate with the artistic truth? It is unlikely we will ever know the true scenario, though the existence of two autograph versions by Troost suggests he was particularly pleased with this composition. Troost is known to have made copies after other artists, including Jan Wijnants and Herman Saftleven, by whom Griffier was also influenced.⁴ A comparable gouache by Troost of a river landscape with a town on a hill is preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (fig.).⁵

1. For Willem Troost, see the biography in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, vol. 110 (2021), p. 329.
2. Oil on panel, 37.1 x 49.7 cm, offered at anonymous sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 11 May 2005, lot 37. 
3. Bodycolour, 376 x 491 mm, signed ‘W. TROOST I. & F’; Christie’s, London, 6 July 1992, lot 93.
4. Sale of collection of Jan Bisschop, Rotterdam (Bosch & Arenberg), 24 June 1771 ff, Album A, no. 1: ‘Een fraai Landschap gestoffeerd met Beeldjes en Beestjes, door W. Troost naar Wynands. Gekleurd.’ (‘A fine landscape staffed with figures and animals, by W. Troost after Wynands. Coloured.’ (sold for 16 florins to ‘Neyman’ and no. 65: ‘Een ditto [Rhyngezicht] kapitaalder, door denzelven [Willem Troost], naar Harmen Zaftleven’ (‘A ditto [Rhine view], more capital, by the same [Willem Troost], after Harmen Zaftleven’), sold for 21 florins to ‘Lokhorst’.
5. Bodycolour, 143 x 190 mm, inv. no. RP-T-1918-491.