A Panoramic Landscape

Philips Koninck-A Panoramic Landscape

Philips (de) Koninck was a Dutch painter of the Baroque era. Apart from producing portraits, history and genre scenes, he is best known for his panoramic (powerful and majestic) landscapes.

As H.S. Francis writes,
Koninck was born in Amsterdam in I6I9 and studied painting with his brother Jacob at Rotterdam. From I64I he lived in Amsterdam and came under the influence of Rembrandt, whose figure style is suggested in this drawing. Primarily known as one of the great masters of landscape, through his contact with Rembrandt he inherited an affinity ...Seghers. From the art of Seghers he acquired a deep under standing of the special quality of the Dutch lowland, and its panoramic sweep.

The style of painting in “A Panoramic Landscape” is a vast area of land/space (imaginary) under a colossal sky populated with cattle, elegant folk, huts, winding road, trees and waterways. It is a flat and sunlit landscape with repeated nuances of colour, patterns of light and dark through the roads and contrasting cloud shadows. The foreground is painted as broad and rough, the middle displays significant particulars, and the background shows bold colour strokes thereby imparting soul in simple masterpieces. Koninck’s landscapes (8 survive today) are permeated with unparalleled harmony and grandeur.