Herman Saftleven the Younger (Rotterdam 1609 - Utrecht 1685)

The theatrical, soaring mountains frame this landscape to spectacular effect. In the background a snow-capped peak can be spied, hinting at the extreme altitude and general inaccessibility of the scene. The craggy rocks are scattered with sporadic trees emerging from nooks and crannies in the rock face, while long, creeping plants reach out into the harsh, challenging environment. Perched on top of the right-hand cliff, a building can just be made out with the outline of a chimney and windows. Above, the sky is clouding over, though the whole landscape is bathed in a soft, warm light.

Walking through the central valley, a group of travellers can be seen. A man wearing a broad-rimmed black hat and cape leads the group and looks towards the viewer while a small dog scampers alongside. Behind him, a pair walk together deep in conversation. The man, holding a walking stick, looks at his companion who is heavily laden with possessions. A small child follows the couple, gesticulating with his right hand. Further behind on the path a lone figure sits atop a horse as it slowly embarks on the incline. In the distance the valley leads into a lake. Two hat-wearing figures can be seen sitting on the shore gazing into the water and in the hazy distance, other figures can be seen wandering through the landscape.

Completed in 1643, Dr. Wolfgang Schulz has noted that the present work was the largest work produced by Herman Saftleven the Younger in that year. Until 1645, Saftleven mainly produced Italianate landscapes that reflected the style of Cornelis van Poelenburch (1595-1667). By the late 1640s, however, he had abandoned that manner in preference of native ‘Dutch’ and Rhenish scenery perhaps stimulated by a visit in 1644 to the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland.¹

Saftleven had occasionally collaborated with van Poelenburch, and these early works display characteristics of his Italianate style. Van Poelenburch was the most important representative of the first generation of the so-called ‘Dutch Italianates’. These artists were active in Rome and produced predominantly pastoral subjects bathed in a soft, warm light, set in an Italian - or Roman - landscape. Interested not only in the classical ruins and splendour of the Roman campagna, they were also inspired by the mountainous and varied natural environment of Italy that was very different from the flat, uniform landscape of the Low Countries. A drawing by van Poelenburch, now in the Rijksmuseum, reveals this dual interest in classical ruins and ragged, vertiginous rock forms.

By the late 1640s, however, Saftleven had shifted his focus: he began to concentrate on drawing imaginary mountain landscapes featuring large, prominent rock formations and distant views that dominated small human figures. Mountain Landscape with Figures (The Getty Museum, Los Angeles) executed in c.1648 is particularly interesting in comparison to the present work as both the compositional structure of the rocky landscape as well as the meandering path through the valley are strikingly similar. Though there is more tangible drama in A Rocky Landscape with Travellers on a Path and Peasants by a Lake due to the vast scale of the landscape, there are clear parallels between the two works.

These fantastical mountainscapes inspired by the scenery of central Europe reveal the undeniable influence of Roelandt Savery (1576-1639), whose own rugged, acutely imagined landscapes made him one of the foremost Flemish landscape artists at the beginning of the seventeenth century. One of his works, Mountain Landscape (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg), superbly exemplifies Savery’s interest in dramatic geological shapes. The green cliff face is punctuated by a white geomorphic form dominating the composition. As in the present painting, a small figure on horseback can be glimpsed amid the colossal rocky structures and, evidently, Savery’s work from some fifty years earlier, had a considerable effect on the mountainous landscapes produced by Saftleven.

The present work was produced before Saftleven began to focus primarily on fantastical landscapes, and it is possibly an early example of Saftleven’s foray into, and experimentation with, the genre of rocky mountainscapes. It serves as a wonderful example of the fusion of the early Italianate influence of van Poelenburch - evident in the soft, southern light - with the craggy, spectacular landscapes seen in the works of Savery.

Saftleven was born in Rotterdam but lived in Utrecht from 1639, finally becoming a citizen of the city in 1659. He was particularly fond of his adopted city and he drew and etched its views and vistas. After a hurricane caused widespread devastation in 1674, Saftleven recorded the damage and in c.1682 he sold a series of twenty two drawings of Utrecht churches that he had completed before they were destroyed. At around the same time, he received a commission to draw the plans and flowers at Vijverhof, the riverside estate of the amateur botanist and horticulturalist Agnes Block (1629-1704).² He was also a member of the Guild of St. Luke there, where he served several times as dean.

Saftleven’s brother, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1681) was also an artist with whom Saftleven briefly collaborated from c.1633. Cornelis specialised in rural genre scenes and the brothers produced a number of barn interiors together. Herman Saftleven continued to produce these alone up until 1637 and they are generally considered to be superior to those of his brother. A particularly good example, now in the Hermitage, demonstrates Herman Saftleven’s exceptional skill as a painter and draughtsman, as the painting is filled with rich detail in its depiction of domestic rural activity.

Saftleven’s early work is indebted to Pieter de Molijn (1595-1661) and Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), and he later briefly fell under the influence of Abraham Bloemmaert (1626-c.1675) and of Jan Both (c.1615-1652). His oeuvre includes farmhouse interiors, imaginary riverscapes and Italianate landscapes. As well as painting, Saftleven produced more than 1,200 topographical and imaginary landscape drawings that were highly sought after by contemporary collectors. These were not rough sketches, but highly finished large-scale independent works. He was also a very active printmaker and produced an extensive body of etchings and engravings. The earliest were produced at the age of eighteen and reveal the influence of Willem Buytewech (c.1591-1625).

His exceptional skill in depicting imaginary and real landscapes made Saftleven one of the best-known Dutch artists during his lifetime. He had a number of pupils including, from c.1645, the landscape painter Jan Gerritsz. van Bemmel (1628-1673) and his brother Willem van Bemmel (1630-1708) and from 1668 to 1671, Jan van Bunnick (1654-1727). His popularity also continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when his works were actively collected and copied, for example by Jan Griffier I (c.1645/1652- 1718).

The provenance of the present work is of particular note as it was once part of Princess Cecilia of Salm-Salm’s art collection at Schloss Dyck. Schloss Dyck is one of the most important moated castles in the Rhineland and had been the home of the Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck family for 900 years until 1999 when the estate became the Centre for Garden Art and Landscape Design. The Baroque appearance of the castle was updated between 1656 and 1667, though the history of the site dates back to 1094.

We are grateful to Dr. Wolfgang Schulz for noting that this previously unrecorded painting is by far the largest of Saftleven's work in 1643.

¹ In 1651, Saftleven made a second visit to the eastern Netherlands, to Arnhem and Cleve (now Kleve, Germany), whence he proceeded up the Rhine to Bingen. In 1677 he produced an integrated series of imaginary Rhineland views.
² These botanical drawings are considered to be among some of the finest in seventeenth-century Dutch art.