Dutch Masters
From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

New acquisition
Herman van Swanevelt's Thunderstorm 1649

Herman van Swanevelt travelled to Rome in the mid to late 1620s. He achieved great success there receiving several commissions from, among others, the Barberini family and the Vatican. While in Rome, he worked with the important landscape painter Claude Lorrain, whose early style was influenced by Swanevelt.

Swanevelt’s high status in Rome was critical to the second generation of Dutch Italianate landscape artists such as Jan Both, Adam Pynacker, and Nicholas Berchem. Their work was closer to the classical style of Swanevelt and Claude compared with the earlier Dutch artists who came under the spell of Caravaggio. In Thunderstorm, Swanevelt has painted a number of travellers who are seeking shelter from an oncoming storm. In the background is a group including a woman riding a donkey, which is a clear allusion to the biblical story of the Holy Family finding refuge before the birth of Jesus.

"This is a picture of exceptional quality which strengthens our collection of 17th century landscapes. Swanevelt worked in Rome and Paris and brought the softer, more elegaic Italianate style something of the sharpness of naturalistic observations which we associate with the Dutch School. This is a brilliant evocation of the effect of strong sunlight in a stormy landscape."

Gerard Vaughan, Director, National Gallery of Victoria