Giovanni Grevenbroeck, known as il Solfarolo (Netherlands, ca. 1650 – Milan, after 1699)
Moonlit harbor view
Oil on canvas (70 x 132 cm - Framed 86 x 146 cm)
Critical appraisals: Expertise by Emilio Negro
DETAILS (link)
We are pleased to present this pleasant nocturnal coastal view illuminated by the cold moonlight, set in a fantastical port with an almost surreal atmosphere, made fascinating by the use of almost monochrome hues with a characteristic prevailing brown tone softened by golden reflections.
The seascape is organized on the skillful juxtaposition of realistic data with others of pure fantasy, and is therefore characterized by steep heights, imaginary constructions, numerous boats and the presence of many characters engaged in their activities. This compositional choice echoes the works of the numerous northern European artists active in Italy during the 17th century - from Pieter Mulier (the Cavalier Tempesta) to Adriaen van der Cabel, just to name a couple - who spread an alternative to classicist vedutism, combining with the realistic vision details fruit of their imagination.
All these elements - combined with the unmistakable clouds with typical atmospheric, chromatic and luministic values - allow us to connect our painting to the pictorial corpus of Giovanni Grevenbroeck (Netherlands, ca. 1650 – Milan, post 1699), progenitor of the family of painters originating from the Netherlands.
The painting expresses all the stylistic and pictorial characteristics of his works, in one of the subjects preferred by his famous workshop: the scene set in a fantastic port is the most typical of his repertoire, always halfway between figurative description and capriccio.
After his apprenticeship in Flanders, Giovanni Grevenbroeck arrived in Italy, specifically in Rome, receiving numerous commissions from the great noble families, such as the Colonna. However, the Roman stay is a brief parenthesis of his career, which will take place largely in Milan, from 1672, where he spent most of his life painting landscapes and seascapes at dawn and sunset of great success, reported in the inventories of the most important local art galleries of the time.
His numerous compositions evoke, as also happens in the canvas in question, also the qualities of 17th-century Roman landscape painting, enlivened both by the northern European examples of Claude Lorrain and by the central Italian ones of Salvator Rosa, with the particularity of rendering his port views as flaming views that entrust the luministic component with the task of highlighting the naturalistic details with its typical atmospheric intonations.
To be convinced of the attribution, therefore, it will be enough to compare the canvas with most of his pictorial corpus, in particular the seascapes at dawn and sunset of Chateauroux (Musée Bertrand) or, even more, the Seaports of Alençon (Musée des Beaux-arts et de la Dentelle), works sometimes attributed to one or the other of his sons, but attributable to Giovanni thanks to the most recent insights into the prolific activity of this active family of 17th-century vedutisti.
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION:
The work is completed by an antique frame and is sold with a certificate of authenticity and warranty.
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