Philips Koninck

Philip studied painting under his brother Jacob in Rotterdam. After his second marriage he moved to Amsterdam. According to the Dutch writer on art Arnold Houbraken, Koninck completed his training in Rembrandt’s studio in Amsterdam. In the late 1640s, Koninck, began to paint panoramas, his canvases divided in half, horizontally, between equal measures of earth and sky. Koninck was evidently much affected by Rembrandt etchings like 'The Goldweigher's Field', which looked across a broad sweep of country layered with bands of shade and light. Also the style of Hercules Segers is to be detected in his work. Impressionable and single-minded, Philips Koninck began to paint like this for the next decade, almost all his panoramas pieced together as if narrow ribbons of darkness and brightness had been laid across the canvas. He was a great success, enough of one, at any rate, to buy and operate a barge line that ran between Amsterdam and Rotterdam via Leiden, so that his business could travel through his own landscapes. He painted chiefly broad, sunny landscapes, full of space, light and atmosphere; they are seen from a high perspective, allowing a prominent view of the sky. Portraits by him, somewhat in the manner of Rembrandt, also exist (e.g. see Joost van den Vondel); there are examples of these in the galleries at Copenhagen and Oslo. Koninck, a prosperous businessman, living on Reguliersgracht, appears to have painted only a few pictures during the last decade of his life. Several of his works have been falsely attributed to Rembrandt and many more to his nephew Salomon de Koninck (1609–1656), a disciple of Rembrandt, whose paintings and etchings consist mainly of portraits and biblical scenes. He was also the uncle of the painters Jacob II and Daniel de Koninck. All of these painters are to be distinguished from David Koninck (1636?–1687), also known as Rammelaar. David Koninck was born in Antwerp and studied there under Jan Fyt. He later settled in Rome, where he is stated to have died in 1687; this, however, is doubtful. His pictures are chiefly landscapes with animals and still life.

Training under Rembrandt is recorded. The recorded working language is Dutch. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Places of work recorded in the authority are Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Works named in the authority record are River landscape, The entrance to the woods, Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679). Work by Philips Koninck is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Städel Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and J. Paul Getty Museum.

• Name — Philips Koninck • Born — 5 November 1619 • Birthplace — Amsterdam • Died — 4 October 1688 • Place of death — Amsterdam

• Illustration — An Extensive Landscape, with a River, 1664 • Illustration — The Feast of Bacchus, 1654