Jan van Huchtenburgh, 'A Battle', about 1680
About the work
Overview
This picture is unsigned, but is attributed to Jan van Huchtenburgh – a specialist painter of battle scenes – on the basis of a stylistic comparison with other works signed by him.
The way he has created a sense of depth is particularly interesting here. In the immediate foreground we are confronted directly with the reality of war – the bodies of two soldiers and a horse lie dead or wounded and four horsemen engage in close combat immediately behind them. The smoke from the pistols suggests that this is the moment when two more men or horses are about to fall. A line of infantrymen, pikes raised, appears to be charging on the right while, on the left, another skirmish and two retreating horsemen lead our eye back to a village burning in the distance.
This scene is probably not intended to represent a specific battle but belongs to a category of paintings based on the French campaigns in the Netherlands in the 1670s.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Battle
- Artist
- Jan van Huchtenburgh
- Artist dates
- 1647 - 1733
- Date made
- about 1680
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas, mounted on wood
- Dimensions
- 42.8 × 58.3 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by Richard Simmons, 1847
- Inventory number
- NG211
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
-
1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.