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Two Long Boats and Two Sailing Boats in Choppy Waters in an Estuary
Two Long Boats and Two Sailing Boats in Choppy Waters in an Estuary

Two Long Boats and Two Sailing Boats in Choppy Waters in an Estuary

Jan Josephsz. van Goyen (Dutch, 1596–1656)
1643
Medium/TechniqueOil on panel
Dimensions27.9 × 40 cm (11 × 15 3/4 in.)
Credit LinePromised gift of Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession numberL-T 198.8.2022
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPaintings
Collections
ProvenanceSpink and Son, London. 1924, Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam. 1924, Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna [see note 1]. Gustav Arens (b. 1867 - d. 1936), Vienna [see note 2]; by inheritance to his daughter, Anna Unger (b. 1897 - d. 1994) and her husband, Friedrich (Fritz) Unger (b. 1891 - d. 1954), Vienna; 1938, prevented from export and forcibly sold to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna [see note 3]; May 1949, returned by the Austrian State to Friedrich (Frederick) and Anna (Ann) Unger, Berkeley, CA [see note 4]; January 12, 1995, Ann A. Unger Trust sale, Sotheby's, New York, lot 15, sold to David Koetser Gallery, Zurich, for Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, Boston.

NOTES:
[1] Early provenance is taken from Hans-Ulrich Beck, Jan Van Goyen 1596-1656, vol. 2 (Amsterdam, 1973), p. 361, cat. no. 805.

[2] Appraised as part of his estate on March 15, 1936; see Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Vienna, 2003), p. 96, appraisal no. 27 (5000 Austrian Schillings).

[3] Following the Anschluss, or the incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938, Friedrich Unger was arrested by the Gestapo and held for two months. He was released and permitted to leave the country only after paying 100,000 Swiss francs and remitting a percent of his securities. In June 1938, he and his wife Anna fled Vienna for Paris. Though they planned to take their art collection with them, two paintings--a landscape by Johann Wilhelm Baur and the present seascape--were prevented from export. The Van Goyen was forcibly sold to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, for RM 1500, less than half its value. The Ungers never received the proceeds. See Lillie 2003 (as above, n. 2), pp. 87-92, and Friedrich Unger's statement (April 8, 1948), National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD; Microfilm publication M1928, roll 107, Records of the German External Assets Branch of the U.S. Allied Commission for Austria, General Records, Unger file.

[4] See introductory remark for the lots from the Ann A.Unger Trust in the 1995 Sotheby's sale catalogue.