HERCULES PIETERSZ. SEGERS (Haarlem c. 1589-c. 1640 The Hague) Forest path. 1618-20. Oil on canvas on wood. 16 × 22.4 cm. Provenance: - Probably collection of the governor Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau (1584-1647) and Amalie zu Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), 1632. - Probably from the collection of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (1620-1688). - Collection of Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg / Frederick I, King of Prussia (1657-1713), at least from 1699 to 1713 (labelled Oranienburg Palace 1709 on verso). - Collection of Frederick William I (1688-1740), Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia, 1713 to 1740. - Collection of Frederick II the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia, from 1740. - Collection of August Wilhelm of Prussia (1722-1758), from 1742-43. - Left Oranienburg Palace as part of a group of 250 paintings, between 1745 and 1800. - Christian Ludwig Stieglitz Collection (1756-1836). - By inheritance, collection of his son, Christian Ludwig Stieglitz (1803-1854), Dresden. - Auction Dresden, 2 May 1838, without lot number (sold for 1 Thaler, 7 Groschen to Johan Christian Dahl). - Collection of the painter Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (1788-1857), Dresden, 1838-1839 (with handwritten label on verso). - Through the mediation of H. T. Heftye (Dahl's agent) to Andreas Schram Olsen (1791-1845), Larvik, Norway, 18 March 1839. - Collection of Johan Ludwig Malthe (1807-1896), from December 1845. - Collection of his nephew, Alexander Ludwig Normann Malthe (1845-1928), Kristiana (Oslo) and Eidsvoll, Akerhus. - Collection of his niece, Alfhilde Malthe (1876-1961), Lesja, Oppland. - Estate sale Alfhilde Malthe, Lesja (Bjorkhaug), 20 August 1962, without lot number (sold to the auctioneer Ole Fagersand). - Collection Ole Fagersand (1909-2002), "Lennsmann" from Dombas, Norway, from 1962. - By inheritance, private collection, until 2003. - Auction Blomqvist, Oslo, collection of heirs of Ole Fagersand and others, 16 December 2003, lot 1212 (as European school of the 19th/20th century). - Acquired at the above auction, private collection, Norway, since 2003. Exhibition: Amsterdam 2016/2017, Hercules Segers, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 7 Oct 2016-8 Jan 2017, no. P1. Literature: - Inventory Oranienburg, 1699, p. 594, no. 207 ("Eine Landschaft durch einen Waldt im schwartzen Rahm"). - Inventory of Oranienburg, 1743 ("A landscape, through a forest, in black cream, from Segers"). - Huigen Leeflang and Pieter Roelofs (eds.): Hercules Segers: Painter, Etcher, exhib. cat. Amsterdam 2016, pp. 246-251, no. P1 (also mentioned on pp. 13, 57, 99, 113, 125, 144, figs. 167 and 168, pp. 145, 214-215, 253, 261, 271, 279 and 337). - Emanuel von Baeyer: Hercules Segers. Painter, Printmaker, Experimentalist, Art Dealer. Woodland Path, Cologne 2022. The painting offered here represents a significant addition to the small oeuvre of oil paintings by the important Flemish-born artist of the Golden Age, Hercules Segers, which was presented to the public for the first time as part of the major Segers retrospective in 2016/2017. This depiction of a winding forest path is the only surviving forest landscape by Segers from a large number of paintings by him described in old sources. The influence of the landscape painter Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607) was of great importance in shaping the mysterious atmosphere that pervades the work of his most important pupil Segers. The work, published for the first time as part of a major retrospective in 2017, has an important provenance. Documented in several early inventories, its recent rediscovery in a Norwegian private collection is the result of art-historical detective work and fortunate circumstances. The work, which was rediscovered 20 years ago, boasts a provenance sequence that is probably the best of all fully accepted paintings by Segers. Segers' authorship is evident not only from the technique used and the similarity to his prints, but also from the 17th century inscription of his name on the back of the panel and his mention in old inventories. Technical and stylistic features On a canvas barely larger than an A5 format, Segers painted a winding sandy path with cart tracks that disappears between trees with intertwined branches and twigs in a dense forest. Rays of sunlight penetrate the dense canopy of leaves. A small house on the left, its roof barely visible through the foliage, marks the only trace of civilisation in this natural idyll. This forest scene was not painted from nature, but was the product of the artist's imagination. As noted in the 2016/2017 exhibition catalogue (see literature), Segers made a preparatory underpainting consisting of white pigment dots that roughly outline the path in the picture and which was applied directly to the painting support, as in his works in the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster (inv.no. 1821LG), in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. no. SK-A-3120) and in the Mauritshuis in The Hague (inv. no. 1033, see exhib. cat. 2016/2017, nos. P6-P8). He then painted the scene wet-on-wet in the colours green, brown, ochre, black and white, accentuating it here and there with lead white or lead-tin yellow. This method of outlining is unique to Segers and certainly proves the authorship of the painting. No other artist is known to have used this specific technique. The use of a canvas as the primary painting support can be found in earlier works (exhib. cat. 2016/2017, no. P2-P6). Shortly after its creation, the work was mounted on an oak panel, probably for reinforcement, which, according to a dendrochronological report by Prof. Dr Peter Klein dated 17 April 2016, comes from a tree felled around 1611-21. Taking into account the usual drying process, it was probably used as a support from 1623. Segers also used this method in a signed landscape with a lake, which is in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (inv. no. 2383, see exhib. cat. 2016/2017, no. P2). Comparable compositions with a lowered horizon, a path leading into the unknown, twisted, winding trees and patches of sunlight falling through a dense forest can be found in various engravings by Segers, for example in a drypoint etching in the British Museum in London (inv. no. S.5532, see exhib. cat. HB37). However, no other painted, pure forest landscape by Seger has survived today, which makes this work a particular rarity. These types of woodland landscapes were also considered much more innovative and modern than valley and panoramic landscapes in his day, and it seems that Segers initially trialled this new type in prints. Due to its similarity to the works mentioned above, the forest landscape offered here can be dated to around 1618-20. A highly regarded artist The art historians Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann and Jaap van der Veen have conducted extensive research into the life of the artist Hercules Segers. It is now known that Segers was born in Haarlem in 1589 or 1590 to Protestant parents who had fled from Ghent. The family later moved to Amsterdam, where Segers was probably apprenticed to the landscape painter Gillis van Coninxloo, who had also fled from Flanders. In Coninxloo's workshop, Segers would have been exposed to the formative influence of the art known to have been collected by his master, including paintings by Joachim Patinir (1483-1524) and Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569) - two artists who, together with Coninxloo himself, provided decisive impulses in the development of landscape painting into a genre in its own right. In an early account of his life by Rembrandt's pupil Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678), Segers is portrayed as a misunderstood artist: far ahead of his time, he was rejected during his lifetime and his brilliance was only recognised after his death. This version of the artist's life, which corresponds to the literary stereotype of the poor, under-appreciated genius, is refuted by documentary evidence which suggests that Segers was highly regarded by his colleagues. In fact, Rembrandt (1606-1669) owned eight of his paintings. His purchase of a large house on the Lindengracht in Amsterdam in 1619 proves that his art brought him considerable wealth, and the purchase of two Segers landscapes by Frederick Hendrik and Amalia van Solms in the early 1630s proves that he was equally well received by the nobility. Segers nevertheless ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell his house in Amsterdam in 1630, from where he moved to Utrecht for a short time and then to The Hague, where he is said to have lived for the last time. Hercules Segers was one of the most prolific artistic minds of his time and created landscapes of astonishing originality. Using a range of unusual techniques, he etched colourful landscapes, seascapes and biblical scenes. His small oeuvre comprises 182 prints, which vary greatly in composition, and 19 paintings. In his prints, the artist demonstrates great experimental boldness, in particular a printing method he developed in which he individually recoloured and partially altered each copy, making each one unique. Segers, who is now recognised as the most innovative graphic artist of the first wave of the Dutch Golden Age and one of the most original graphic artists of all time, saw himself as a painter first and foremost. As has recently been established, his prints were in most cases created after his oil paintings, which in turn formed the basis for his radical, highly innovative etchings. A complete provenance The exceptionally well-documented provenance of the painting can be traced back to the 17th century. The label on the back of the panel provides a wealth of information about the painting's aristocratic provenance: the words "Oranienbourg / Im monath Septbr / 1709" are written in elegant script around the stamped coat of arms of Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, later King Frederick I of Prussia. Similar inscriptions in black or red ink with the same coat of arms can also be found on other paintings from the electoral collection. They were applied in autumn 1709 to paintings that were inventoried in Oranienburg Palace, 30 km north of Berlin (see H. Sander: Schloss Oranienburg. Ein Inventar aus dem Jahre 1743, Berlin/Brandenburg 2001, p. 29). The name "...les Segers" is written in black under the label, which indicates that Hercules Segers was known as the creator of this forest scene from at least 1709. The inventory from 1709 has not survived today, but the painting is already listed in the inventory from 1699 as "207. A landscape through a forest in a black frame" (the number "207" at the bottom left of the canvas, which was glazed over during restoration in 2016, refers to this inventory) and in the one from 1743 as "A country scene, through a forest, in a black frame, by Segers". At the time, the painting hung in the King of Prussia's antechamber, as indicated by the note "1743 R. No:8" refers to this. Both inventories mention a second forest landscape by Segers, which also hung in the palace from the seventeenth century (probably as a counterpart) and is now lost. It is not known for certain when exactly the painting came to Oranienburg. It is assumed that Jan Ruijscher (1625-1675), court painter to the Elector of Brandenburg and a successor to Seger, who was nicknamed "the young Hercules", played a role in the acquisition. This would mean that both forest scenes were acquired a generation earlier, around 1657-62, by Frederick's father, Frederick William (1620-1688), the Great Elector. However, it is equally likely that the Amsterdam-based dealer Johannes de Renialme (1600-1657) played a role in the transaction. In a letter dated 19 August 1650, he offered Frederick William a rare landscape by Segers in the same format as a beach scene by Jan Porcellis (1582-1632), which was already in Frederick's collection (see John Michael Montias: Art at Auction in 17th-century Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2002, p. 137). Frederick William was married to Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau (1627-1667), daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau, and Amalie zu Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), and spent the years 1634 to 1638 in the Netherlands, where he developed his taste for art at court in The Hague (see Claudia Sommer: Niederländische Einflüsse auf die Landeskultivierung und Kunstentfaltung in Brandenburg von 1640 bis 1740, in: exhib. cat. Onder den Oranje boom: Dutch art and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries at German princely courts, 18.4. -18.7.1999, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum, Krefeld / Schloss Oranienburg, Oranienburg / Palast Het Loo, Appeldoorn, Munich 1999, catalogue volume, p. 205). There he may have had the opportunity to admire the two landscapes by Hercules Segers mentioned in the 1632 inventory of the Prince of Orange's possessions ("...twee stucken schilderiën, sijnde landtschappen, deur Hercules Zegers gemaeckt." see S. W. A. Drossaers and Th. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer: Inventarissen van de inboedels in de verblijven van de Oranjes en daarmede gelijk te stellen stukken (1567-1795), 's-Gravenhaage 1974, vol. I, p. 230) and may have received it in 1646 through his marriage to Princess Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau (1627-1667). A final possibility is that Frederick William acquired the works directly from Segers or his circle. After several generations of aristocratic ownership, the painting left the palace when the Electoral Collection was dissolved between 1743 and 1800. A short time later, it entered the collection of the Leipzig master builder and councillor Christian Ludwig Stieglitz (1756-1836) and his son of the same name, Christian Ludwig Stieglitz (1803-1854), who worked as a lawyer and historian in Dresden. In 1838, the painting was acquired by the Norwegian landscape painter Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) at an auction in Dresden (see National Library Oslo, Johan Christian Dahl, edition book (ms.), entry dated 2 May 1838 ("A landscape without frame allegedly by Segers"). At this point, the attribution to Hercules Segers was no longer known. In fact, Dahl mistakenly noted an attribution to the Antwerp flower painter Daniel Seghers (1590-1661) on a label on the reverse. Dahl must have been particularly impressed by Segers' painting technique and the unusually dense rendering of the landscape for the early 17th century. He was particularly interested in seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting and in his early years made copies after Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682), whose influence is clearly visible in his later work. According to Dahl's diary, his agent, H. T. Heftye, sold the painting to Andreas Schram Olsen (1791-1845) in Larvik, Norway, around 1839. After his death in 1845, the painting became the property of the collector Johan Ludwig Malthe (1807-1896), probably as one of five paintings that Malthe acquired either at Schram Olsen's estate auction in Kristiana (Oslo) in December 1845 or directly from the auctioneer (see exhib. cat. 2016/2017, footnote 7). His nephew, the doctor and art collector Alexander Ludwig Normann Malthe (1845-1928) and his niece Alfhilde Malthe (1876-1961) subsequently inherited the painting. Through their estate auction, the painting came into the possession of the auctioneer Ole Fagersand (1909-2002) and his descendants in 1962. A Norwegian private collector acquired the painting in 2003 at the estate auction of Ole Fagersand's heirs, where the painting was mistakenly offered as a 19th/20th century European school. There, the painting was still adorned with Johan Christian Dahl's favoured frame with characteristic ornamentation, which became known as the Dahl frame. In 2007, a series of technological analyses and art historical research was commissioned, which led to the rediscovery of the painting's authorship and ultimately to its inclusion in the major retrospective of the artist Hercules Segers at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2016/2017. These objects marked with * (asterisk) are fully subject to VAT, i.e. VAT will be charged on the hammer price plus buyer's premium. Buyers who present a legally stamped export declaration will receive a refund of the VAT.