About the Artwork
Some Dutch painters of the seventeenth century combined a native love for naturalistic landscapes with an appreciation for the topography and atmosphere of the Italian countryside. Many of them traveled south of the Alps, and the resulting Italianate paintings include hills, bright sunlight, blue skies, and classical ruins—a welcome contrast to the flat land and cloudy skies of Holland. Jan Baptist Weenix specialized in such views, drawing upon a rich portfolio of sketches to compose Italianate landscapes both during his stay in Rome (1643–47) and after his return to Holland. For example, the buxom woman in a straw hat, her baby, and the dog near them are stock figures that appear in several paintings by the artist. This one is signed at the top left "Gio[vanni] Batt[ist]a Weenix," the Italian version of his name, in the manner he preferred to use after he returned from Italy.
Italian Peasants among Ruins
ca. between 1649 and 1650
Jan Baptist Weenix
1621-1659
Dutch
Unknown
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 26 1/4 × 31 1/2 inches (66.7 × 80 cm) Framed: 34 5/8 × 39 1/2 × 2 inches (87.9 × 100.3 × 5.1 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Gift of Mrs. John A. Bryant in memory of her husband
41.57
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
Signed, upper left: Gio: Batta: Weenix
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Provenance
before 1791, Johann Christoph Werther (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
April 25-26, 1792, (van der Schley . . . de Bosch, Amsterdam, Netherlands) auction J.C. Werther, lot 38 [as Ruth and Boas]
Mrs. John A. Bryant
1941-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 143, no. 791.
Stechow, W. "Jan Baptist Weenix." Art Quarterly 11, no. 3 (1948) pp. 181-199 (fig. 6).
Italy through Dutch Eyes. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, 1964, cat. 68, pl. 4.
Nederlandse 17e Eeuwse Italianiserende Landschapschilders. Exh. cat., Centraal Museum. Utrecht, 1965, pp. 178-179, cat. 99 (ill.).
Rosenberg, J., S. Slive, and E.H. ter Kuile. Dutch Art and Architecture 1600-1800. Baltimore, 1966, p. 177, pl. 154A.
Sullivan, S.A. "Jan Baptist Weenix. Still Life with a dead Swan." Bulletin of the DIA 57, no. 2 (1979): pp. 64-71 (fig. 3).
Ginnings, R.J. "The Art of Jan Baptist Weenix and Jan Weenix." Unpublished diss., University of Delaware, 1970, pp. 38, 133, no. 22.
Robinson, F. Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667). New York, ca. 1974, p. 18.
Cummings, Frederick J., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 53, no. IX (ill.).
Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art et al. Philadelphia, 1984, p. 355 (fig. 1), cited under cat. 124.
Sutton, P.C. Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, 1986, p. 86 (fig. 123).
Sutton, P.C. Northern European Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia,1990, p. 354, cited under cat. 130 (ill.).
Italian Recollections Dutch Painters of the Golden Age. Exh. cat., Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Montreal, 1990, pp. 194-195, cat. 63 (ill.).
Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis et al. The Hague, 1990, pp. 473-475, cat. 70, (ill.).
Het Gedroomde Land. Centraal Museum et al. Utrecht, 1993, p. 269 (fig. 54.1).
Masters of Light Dutch Painters in Utrecht during the Golden Age. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco et al. San Francisco, 1997, pp. 352-355, cat. 74 (ill.).
Wissman, F.W. European Vistas: Cultural Landscapes. Detroit, 2000, p. 92 (ill.).
Bandes, Susan J. Pursuits and Pleasures: Baroque Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Dennos Museum Center, Kalamazoo Art Museum, Kresge Art Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art. Battle Creek, 2003, pp. 8, 10, 44, 45 (ill.).
Masters of Dutch Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts, London, 2004, pp. 256-259.
Waiboer, A. "The Early Years of Gabrielf Metsu." Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1223 (February 2005): pp. 80-90 (fig. 15).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Jan Baptist Weenix, Italian Peasants among Ruins, ca. between 1649 and 1650, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. John A. Bryant in memory of her husband, 41.57.
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