Italian Landscape with Peasants Gathering Rushes
- Date
- 2nd half of the 17th c.
- Object type
- painting
- Technique
- oil
- Material
- canvas
- Dimensions
- 81,4 x 67,4 cm
- Acquisition date
- 1777
- Location
- The Palace on the Isle - Picture Gallery, ground floor
- Marks and inscriptions
- red number 82 of the Stanisław August collection, bottom right
- Place of Origin
- Netherlands (Europe)
- Owner
- The Royal Łazienki
- Museum number
- ŁKr 813
In the catalogue and inventories of the Stanisław August collection, the painting figures as the work of Berchem; however, in the draft of the main catalogue dating from 1793–95, the annotation ‘manière de’ was added. ...
In the 1795 catalogue of the Stanisław August collection, the painting (no. 82) was valued at 36 ducats, therefore approx. ten times less than e.g. Peasant Scene ... —the most expensive of five paintings by Berchem in the king’s collection – valued at 300 ducats. Irrespective of the attribution of Italian Landscape with Peasants Gathering Rushes to Berchem, its market value given in the catalogue indicates the work of a follower, rather than an original work by one of the most admired painters in the 18th century of Italianate landscapes.
...
Characteristic of Berchem’s technique are the loose, fluent brushstrokes and the way in which he builds forms with smudges of colour, virtually without the use of contours. In the Łazienki landscape, we cannot find this painterly mastery, although it is of good quality and can be deemed the work of a follower who remained in the master’s circle. ... [See D. Juszczak, H. Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 19, pp. 101–104.]