Thomas WIJCK (1616-1677), Scene in the Harbor

oil, duplicated canvas; 82.5 x 107 cm;
Signed l. d.: T Wijck;

The painting has a certificate of authenticity from Dr. Stanislaw Turczynski, director of the Wawel State Art Collections, dated 27. II. 1948) and the opinion of Dr. Magdalena Piwocka (26. VIII. 1993).

Figural scene placed in a port on the Italian (?) coast [...] The composition of the painting is diagonal, with the weight shifted to the left side of the painting, dominated by dark architecture. The whole is extremely skillfully painted, both in the part of figures (complexions, draperies) and rich still lifes - of fruit, dishes, rolls of cloth, scattered books. Well-won accents of light with colors reduced to warm browns, ochre, ochre, umber and kraplac.
Thomas Wijck (Wyck) [...] painted countless versions of southern ports (Italian or eastern), landscapes with ancient ruins, scenes in obscure interiors described as an alchemist's or scholar's studio, and rural genre scenes (spinners, washerwomen). Moving within such a limited circle of subjects (4 types) he acquired a great variety of details and shots, as evidenced by the juxtaposition of three parallels to our painting - canvases from Budapest, Winterthur and Leipzig (Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, inv. no. 64.5; Jacob Briner Foundation, Winterthur; Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, inv. no. 826).
The Budapest painting and our show are united not only by a similar composition, but by the person of the main entertainer of the action - exposed by posture, gesture, and oriental costume. There is also a motif of reading out goods from a "shipping list". In our work, the foreground still life is much more varied and virtuosically painted. Such features of the artist's workshop noticed by researchers as vivid colors, luministic effects, strong chiaroscuro, a sense of space are checked in it. As usual in Wijck's work, Italian and Dutch elements are adjacent - the boy with a forehead band (in the middle of the foreground) resembles types from the paintings of Terbrugghen and Lievens, and the screaming salesman (in the center of the scene) imitates the models of Adriaen van Ostade (painting in the National Museum in Warsaw, inv. no. 156008). The female figures are clearly Italicized. Among the regular actors in Wijck's compositions is a young boy with southern features - in our painting - bent over at the well. The author operates it in many works - The Alchemist of Ermitaž, inv. no. 1942, a painting from Vaduz (collection of the Dukes of Lichtenstein, inv. no. 641).
The vision of a port with a figural scene, repeated in so many versions with a similar design (diagonal, clearance of a bay with a peninsula), is enlivened by the same figures still favored by the artist. This self-composition places our painting firmly in Wijck's oeuvre, in a group of paintings associated with his stay in Italy and based on sketches created there (drawings of the Bay of Naples and Italian landscapes preserved in the Albertina in Vienna and the Teylers Stichting in Harlem). This subject, which is likely to have a large following in the art market, was already practiced by the artist in his native Holland, from the mid-1740s. XVII until the end of his life. Within this genre, our painting is located among the master's more interesting and elaborate productions.
(from the expert opinion of Dr. Magdalena Piwocka, Krakow, August 26, 1993)