Pieter de Neyn Lot n° 2040

Pieter de Neyn Figures conversing by a Farmstead Oil on panel. 33 x 61.5. Monogrammed and dated lower centre: PN(conjoined) 1630. Provenance Sothebys London 4.08.1887 (17,050 GBP). - Rafael Valls art dealers, London. - Heide Hübner art dealers, Würzburg. - Acquired from the former in 1988 at the Westdeutsche Kunstmesse, Düsseldorf. - Subsequently in a German private collection. Literature H. U. Beck Künstler um Jan van Goyen. Maler und Zeichner, Augsburg 1991, illus. p. 348, cat. 949. Pieter de Neyn, born in Leiden in 1597, was only two years younger than Jan van Goyen. Both probably worked at the same time in the workshop of Esaias van de Velde. De Neyn remained artistically very close to van Goyen throughout his life, although there is little to confuse the works of the two painters. Compared to van Goyen's tonal paintings, de Neyn prefers stronger colour contrasts. His compositions are also characterised by an idiosyncratic horizontal arrangement in which sunlit sections alternate with shady ones. De Neyn died at the age of just 42, which means that the total œuvre he left behind is not very extensive. This painting is registered with the RKD under the number 366538.