Gerardus Wieringa (Groningen 1750 – 1817/18 Groningen)

Landscape with Travellers

Oil on canvas, 56 x 72 cm (22 x 28.3 inch); presented in a modern gilt frame of early 19th-century model

Signed and dated ‘G. Wieringa 1808’ (lower right)

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Franciscus Gerardus Wieringa, known as Gerardus Wieringa, was born in Groningen as the son of Johannes Wieringa, who specialised in ‘behangels’, large-scale decorate paintings which were highly fashionable during the eighteenth century.¹ He was initially trained by his father, and continued his studies at the ‘Stadstekenacademie’ or drawing academy in Amsterdam and during travels to Düsseldorf, where he studied the works of the great masters in the celebrated gallery, assembled by the Palatine Electors. He finished his artistic training in the studio of Jurriaan Andriessen (1742–1819) in Amsterdam, the leading manufacturer of ‘behangels’ in The Netherlands.

Wieringa returned to Groningen, where he was the most successful artist of his generation; among his students were Harmannus Huising and Joannes Nicolaus Schoonbeek. In 1810 he was awarded a prestigious prize by the Leiden artists’ society Ars aemula naturae for a painting depicting a Dutch landscape at sunset. Wieringa was also an active collector, and his collection was sold in 1818 with a published catalogue by the auctioneer B. van der Kamp, Catalogus van eene uitmuntende verzameling kunstige schilderijen, fraaije teekeningen, en overheerlijke prenten, nagelaten door wijlen den kunstschilder G.F. Wieringa; meestendeels door dien beroemden meester en andere vermaarde meesters, vervaardigd.

A series of five ‘behangsels’ by Wieringa, commissioned by the Bulthuis family in 1782 for their house on the Vismarkt in Groningen is preserved in the Groninger Guseum in Groiningen.² A Hilly Landscape is also preserved in the same museum which can be compared to our painting (fig.).³

SOLD TO A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

1. For the artist, see R. Harmanni, Jurriaan Andriessen (1742–1819): ‘behangselschilder’, thesis, Leiden 2006, p. 428 and P. Scheen, Lexicon Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars, 1750-1880, The Hague 1981, p. 582.
2. Canvas, each approximately 264 x 180 cm, inv. no. 2223.
3. Panel, 25.5 x 34 cm, inv. no. 2016B.