Landscape with, in left foreground, a man seated on the roadside on the edge of a wood and giving direction to a horseman and his servant; beyond at right, two figures on the roadside, and another three further back.

Jan van Huchtenburg (1647, Haarlem-1733, Amsterdam), was a famous Dutch horse and battle painter, like Esaias van de Velde and Philips Wouwermans. He was first taught by Thomas Wijck, also represented in Te Papa's collection. On his way to visit his artist brother Jacob in Rome, he may not have got further than Paris, where he served under Adam Frans van der Meulen in the Manufacture des Gobelins (tapestries), employing him for illustrating, sketching and printmaking - this print is an example of an etching after a design by Van der Meulen.

In 1670 Van Huchtenburg settled at Haarlem, where he married Elisabeth Mommes. It seems he practised and kept a dealers shop in Haarlem or in the Hague. His style had now merged into an imitation of Wouwerman and Van der Meulen, which could not fail to produce pretty pictures of hunts and robber camps, the faculty of painting horses and men in action and varied dress being the chief point of attraction. Huchtenburg assisted Gerrit Berckheyde and painted his people and horses.

Later Van Huchtenburg ventured on cavalry skirmishes and engagements of regular troops generally, and these were admired by Prince Eugene of Savoy and King William III, who gave the painter sittings, and commissioned him to throw upon canvas the chief incidents of the battles they fought upon the continent of Europe. When he died at Bloemgracht in the Jordaan in 1733, Van Huchtenburg had done much by his pictures and prints to make Prince Eugene, King William and the Duke of Marlborough popular. Though clever in depicting a mile or a skirmish of dragoons, he remained second to Philips Wouverman in accuracy of drawing, and inferior to Van der Meulen in the production of landscapes. Nevertheless, he was a clever and spirited master, with great facility of hand and considerable natural powers of observation.

This etching is one of a series of six plates by Van Huchtenburg showing landscapes after Van der Meulen. One could easily envisage such an idyllic scene being made into a Gobelins tapestry. In the left foreground, a man seated on the roadside at the edge of the wood is giving directions to a horseman and his servant; beyond at the right, there two figures on the roadside, and another three further back. Well-established trees and the winding road dominate the landscape, even if there are interesting incidentals in the figures.

Sources:

British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3035227&partId=1&am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;searchText=huchtenburg+meulen+landscape&page=1

Wikipedia, 'Huchtenburg', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huchtenburg

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    April 2019