(Brussels 1818–1907 Mainz)
Winter landscape with ice skaters, verso titled, with label of the Norddeutscher Gesamt-Kunstverein NDGKV no. 706, signed, dated Ch. Leickert (18)67,
oil on canvas, 86 x 130 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Johann Daniel Dreyer (1809-1889), Bremen; private collection Germany.

Exhibited: Norddeutscher Gesamt Kunstverein, Ausstellung zu Bremen, March 1872 as ‘Die Maas bei Rotterdam, Winterbild’.

‘Charles Leickert studied under Bart van Hove (1850-1914) and Wijnand Nuijen (1813-1839), but the master who most influenced his style was Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870).
Leickert is indeed mainly known for his winter landscapes, a subject in which he specialised while working in Schelfhout’s studio. The present painting is typical for Leickert’s production and in general for Dutch landscape painting in the 19th century. Leickert generally constructed his works following a diagonal composition and placing edifices somewhat higher on the sides, always including one or more classic windmills. He was known to sketch his rural surroundings in his notebooks while wandering in the countryside; he would then reuse these drawings in different paintings, so that we can find similar figures and architectural features more than once throughout his oeuvre. As we can see here, Leickert never seemed to make a particular effort in detailing his figures’ faces or expressions, but rather concentrated on the landscape, which still shows the influence of Schelfhout, for example in the frozen blocks surrounding the hole in the ice or in the willow trees.

Provenance:
Sale Christie’s Amsterdam, 5 November 1981, lot 115;
Sale Dorotheum Vienna, 26 May 1982, lot 429;
Private collection Vienna.

Exhibited: Norddeutscher Gesamt Kunstverein, Ausstellung zu Bremen, March 1872 as ‘Die Maas bei Rotterdam, Winterbild’.

‘Charles Leickert studied under Bart van Hove (1850-1914) and Wijnand Nuijen (1813-1839), but the master who most influenced his style was Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870).
Leickert is indeed mainly known for his winter landscapes, a subject in which he specialised while working in Schelfhout’s studio. The present painting is typical for Leickert’s production and in general for Dutch landscape painting in the 19th century. Leickert generally constructed his works following a diagonal composition and placing edifices somewhat higher on the sides, always including one or more classic windmills. He was known to sketch his rural surroundings in his notebooks while wandering in the countryside; he would then reuse these drawings in different paintings, so that we can find similar figures and architectural features more than once throughout his oeuvre. As we can see here, Leickert never seemed to make a particular effort in detailing his figures’ faces or expressions, but rather concentrated on the landscape, which still shows the influence of Schelfhout, for example in the frozen blocks surrounding the hole in the ice or in the willow trees.