A Rare and Monumental 18th Century Italianate Landscape Oil on Canvas by Dutch Old Master W. Troost the Elder (1684-1752)

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This is a Dutch Old Master oil on canvas, measuring 130 inches tall by 119 wide (~10.8 Feet x 10 … Read more This is a Dutch Old Master oil on canvas, measuring 130 inches tall by 119 wide (~10.8 Feet x 10 Feet). Known as a behangsel or large-scale room decoration commissioned for Dutch or German palaces, grand manors, or public buildings, it was painted by William Troost the Elder roughly 300 years ago. The painting is a gorgeous Italianate-style rendering of classic architecture blended into a picturesque landscape beneath a bright blue sky with large white clouds over mountainous terrain. Several buildings line the right bank, which is bustling with activity in the form of citizens fishing, washing clothes, and carrying baskets of flowers. Onlookers observe from a balcony and a window of the second story of a gabled building. On the opposite shore, two women and a young girl gather flowers by a stone statue of a lioness in front of an obelisk overrun by vines. Three swans swim in the river near a black dog on the left bank.

Willem Troost I (1684–1752) was a pupil of Johannes Glauber between 1704 and 1709. Glauber was famous for painting idealized, sun-drenched Italian landscapes. Even though Troost worked primarily in Northern Europe, he specialized in reproducing these warm, fantastical landscapes. He is explicitly recorded in historical art registries as a “decorative painter of interiors”. Wealthy patrons in the 18th century would hire artists like Troost to paint large-scale canvases that were flush mounted directly into the wood panelling of entire rooms. He worked as a court painter in Düsseldorf for Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatine starting in 1712 and later painted for the Princess von der Pfalz-Sulzbach. Large-scale commissions of this size are exceedingly rare.

The painting was only recently brought to market (2019 Loire Valley sale) and upon arriving in Dallas, underwent professional restoration and gold leaf framing.

Based on a stamp on the verso (see second photo): While Willem Troost the Elder painted during the 18th century (1684–1752), the Manufacture de Toiles V. Biebuyck operated heavily in the 19th century and early 20th century. Because the mill supplied high-quality decorative canvas and specialized marouflage lining fabrics for massive, monumental installations, finding this on the painting indicates that this piece was professionally lined or transferred onto a fresh, heavy-duty French backing canvas during the late 19th century to preserve it.

Given that the painting is an astonishing 330 cm tall, it is completely standard for a masterwork of that scale to have been stabilized by a museum-grade French canvas supplier to ensure its survival across centuries. This “French Lining” adds great historical value, proving the painting was highly prized and meticulously preserved. See less