(Antwerp 1662–1749 Rome)
An arcardian landscape with figures by a river, a hill top town beyond; and An arcardian landscape with figures by a river and buildings beyond,
oil on canvas, each 73 x 98 cm, framed (2)

Jan Frans van Bloemen is documented in Rome from 1688, soon after relocating along with his older brother Pieter from France. He had already produced landscapes, following the tastes of various foreign “Italianized” masters, such as Galuber, Meyering, Millet and others, whose works were popular in France.

In the present pair of paintings van Bloemen displays compositions of rich and carefully articulated innovation, exemplary of his typical landscapes, which were influenced by his frequent trips to the countryside of Lazio.
Nevertheless the influence of his Flemish background is still recognizable in the meticulous definition of the details, together with stylistic influences from artists such as Dughet, and Claude Lorrain, as well as Jacob de Heusch together with his main competitor for the leadership of the genre in Rome, Andrea Locatelli.

Jan Frans’ characteristic scenes are prevalently suspended between mythology and reality, in a timeless atmosphere, evoking the myth of Arcadia, in the distant wake of Claude Lorrain. He evoked an idealistic vision inspired by a close relationship with what was to be represented, although it was then re-elaborated in the privacy of his studio, and not infrequently preceded by observations which had been recorded on the scene.

The built-up area with walls on the hill, recall the countryside of Lazio, between Orvieto and Orte. The scheme of the accompanying painting is based upon an imaginary group of buildings on the left, in which can be glimpsed something of the Eternal City such as the cupola reminiscent of the Pantheon. Such inventive complexity can again be discerned in various landscapes by van Bloemen. This, as in the case of the present pair of paintings can be compared to the two pairs at the Art Gallery of Glasgow (see A. Busiri Vici, Jean Frans van Bloemen “Horizon” and the origin of the Roman eighteenth-century landscape, ed. U. Bozzi, Rome, 1974, nos. 15-16 and 19-20) dated to the last decade of the seventeenth century, and to several of the paintings at the Doria Pamphilj Gallery (A. Busiri Vici, ibid., nos. 47 and 48 in particular).

We are grateful to Giancarlo Sestieri for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.