An Extensive Landscape with Exotic Flowers, Fruit and Vegetables, a Goat and a 'Noli me tangere' in the Garden beyond
Gommaert van der Gracht (Mechelen 1590-1639)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1630 - 1639
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1867 x 2787 mm
Order this imageCollection
Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire
NT 784674
Caption
This large Flemish landscape painting of c.1630 is hung above a dining table – an appropriate setting for the abundant fruit and vegetables depicted on the canvas. The focus of the background to the painting is a formal garden in which the risen Christ appears to Mary Magdalene.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, An Extensive Landscape with Exotic Flowers, Fruit and Vegetables, a Goat and a 'Noli me tangere' in the Garden beyond by Gommaert van der Gracht (Mechelen 1590-1639), circa 1630. A goat stands by a tree in the middle ground with its back to the viewer. Gommaert van der Gracht was born circa 1590 and became a pupil of Michiel Coxie the Younger in Malines in 1602. He seems to have settled in Malines (Mechelen) where he specialised primarily in painting landscapes. There is a signed painting by him (174 by 270 cm.) of an ‘Assembly of fruit and vegetables with three putti’ in the Stadsmuseum, Malines and another signed painting was sold l’Hôtel Rameau, Versailles, 7 June 1967, lot 224. A landscape, very comparable to the present painting, is recorded by E. Greindl in 'Les Peintres Flamands de Nature Morte au XV11e Siecle', 1983 as in a private collection, Rio de Janeiro.
Provenance
The Hesketh Collection, Rufford Old Hall, where photographed in the Dining Room in 1929; purchased at Sotheby's Easton Neston (Hesketh seat in Northamptonshire) sale, 17th to 19th May 2005, lot no 88
Credit line
Rufford Old Hall, The Hesketh Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Gommaert van der Gracht (Mechelen 1590-1639), artist
References
Tipping 1929 H. Avray Tipping, “Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire, A Seat of Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, Bt -II" Country Life 26 October 1929, pp. 570-6., reproduced plate 11 Greindl, Edith. Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle. 1956., in 1983 edition, p.88, fig.52, and p.89, fig.53