Philips Koninck: Dutch Panorama Landscape with a River

Philips Koninck is best known for his panoramic landscapes, but he also painted everyday scenes, religious scenes, and portraits.

Like so many other Dutch 17th century artists he had to supplement his earnings with other jobs and sources of income; Koninck was also an innkeeper and owned a ferry service operating between Amsterdam, Leiden, and Rotterdam.

Inspired by Rembrandt
Philips Koninck is believed to have been a student of Rembrandt (1609-1669), although no conclusive evidence supports this theory. Whatever the case may be, Koninck was certainly inspired by Rembrandt, particularly in his juvenile works from the late 1630s.

The idealised Dutch panorama
Unlike other Dutch landscape painters Koninck focused on one particular type of landscape: idealised Dutch panoramas inspired by the countryside of Gelderland.

Koninck as a mature artist
The painting shown here is typical with its high viewpoint from a hilltop overlooking a flat landscape. It shows Koninck as a mature artist who has developed his own personal style through years of application. Here, he worked with an unusually sketch-like style and a large-scale format which in itself served to heighten the significance of the genre, from being modest cabinet pieces to something approaching the status of the great history paintings.