An oil on panel painting by Dutch artist, Cornelis Gerritsz. Decker (1620-1678) depicting a bucoloic riverside village scene. This finely executed oil painting depicts a tranquil village along a riverbank, charactheristic of the Dutch Golden Age’s mature landscape tradition. The composition is structured around a serene waterway, where a lone figure tends a small rowboat laden with cargo. In the foreground a charming thatched-roof cottage nestles amid lush foliage and mature trees, rendered with meticulous attention to detail and naturalistic texture. To the left, a steepled village church rises modestly above the treetops, anchoring the background and imbuing the scene with a sense of peaceful continuity between rural life and quite spiritual presence. FIgures stroll the path leading toward the church. Executed with a warm, earthy palette, and refined brushwork, the painting showcases a mastery of atmospheric depth, compositional balance and architectural obseration. The careful rendering of brick, wood, water, reflection, and natural vegetation points to an artist well-versed in the visual lanaguage developed by painters such as Meindert Hobbema, Jacob van Ruisdael, or followers of Jan van Goyen.

The panel measures 23 1/2” x 32 1/2” and overall with frame measures 30” x 39 1/2”. The panel is stable, painted on a compound panel, with two horizontal joins, one roughly 8 inches below the upper edge, and another roughly 8 inches above the lower edge. There is restoration along both of these. Restoration to the top of the tree in the center of the composition; also an area of restoration in the sky at upper right. Scattered restoration elsewhere in the sky. There is restoration to the top left corner of the frame and other minor elements. The painting has some yellowing in the sky and could benefit from cleaning, but presents well in its current condition and is ready to hang.

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Provenance:

Art Dealer, Junsthandel P. de Boer - Amsterdam until 1938

Art Dealer, E. B. Berger - Stockholm from 1938

Auction - Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, Denmark 30 May 1995, Lot#18

Attribution - Marijke C de Kinkelder - 1995, noted in documenation of the RKD (Research Institute for Netherlandish Art)

Biography from AskArt: Cornelis Decker is a relatively little-known Dutch landscape painter who was active in Haarlem, where he was first recorded in 1643, entering the Guild of Painters.  He may have been a pupil of Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/03-1670), but followed the school of Jacob van Ruysdael (1628-1682). He also imitated the style of Jan Wijnants (1632-1684) and Philips Wouwermans (1619-1668). Decker collaborated with Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), who sometimes painted the figures in his landscapes.

Decker is represented in the National Gallery, London; the Hackney Art Gallery, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Louvre, Paris, amongst other collections.