The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Video/Audio (3)

The Artistic Heritage of Modena: Wounded Art
(00:22:19) 24 views

The Artistic Heritage of Modena: At the Origin of the Galleria Estense
(00:28:23) 11 views

The Artistic Heritage of Modena: The Art of Diplomacy
(00:30:10) 13 views

The Farrier

Aert van der Neer (Dutch, Gorinchem 1603/4–1677 Amsterdam)

Date:: early or mid-1650s
Medium:: Oil on wood
Dimensions:: 19 x 24 1/8 in. (48.3 x 61.3 cm)
Classification:: Paintings
Credit Line:: Purchase, 1871
Accession Number:: 71.60

This artwork is part of The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 638

Gallery Label

Van der Neer’s preoccupation with light effects in nature led him to paint dozens of nocturnal views. In this case the warm light of a forge and a bonfire set off the cool glow and reflections of the moon.
Catalogue Entry

Forthcoming
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Signed (lower left): AV DN [monogram]
Provenance

[Léon Gauchez, Paris]; William T. Blodgett, Paris (from 1870; sold half share to Johnston); William T. Blodgett, Paris, and John Taylor Johnston, New York (1870–71; sold to MMA)
Exhibition History

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Hudson-Fulton Celebration," September–November, 1909, no. 67.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscape Paintings," May 14–September 30, 1934, no. 21.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Painter's Light," October 5–November 10, 1971, no. 24.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
References

F[ritz von]. Harck. "Berichte und Mittheilungen aus Sammlungen und Museen, über staatliche Kunstpflege und Restaurationen, neue Funde: Aus amerikanischen Galerien." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 11 (1888), p. 76, as a good, signed example.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: Catalogue of an Exhibition Held in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1909, vol. 1, p. 68, no. 67, ill. opp. p. 68.

C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 7, London, 1923, p. 385, no. 244, as "Moonlit Landscape with a Smithy".

Bryson Burroughs. Landscape Paintings. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1934, p. 16, no. 21.

John Walsh Jr. The Painter's Light. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1971, p. 11, no. 24, dates it about 1660.

Katharine Baetjer. "Buying Pictures for New York: The Founding Purchase of 1871." Metropolitan Museum Journal 39 (2004), pp. 197, 220, 245, appendix 1A no. 156, ill.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 506–8, no. 129, colorpl. 129, dates it to the early or mid-1650s.
Notes

This picture probably dates from about 1655–60.