Description
Hendrik Willem Schweickhardt (1747-1797) – Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
Oil on mahogany panel; signed H W Schweickhardt f. (lower left).
Panel: 12 3/8 x 16 1/2 in. (31.5 x 42 cm.) unframed.
Condition: Very good. The painting is offered in its as-found state and will require professional cleaning. There are a few minor white spots; under magnification, these appear to be white paint rather than damage, although one spot on a sheep shows minor paint loss. The structure of the panel is sound and there are no cracks. The strength of the paint is strong and doesn’t appear to have been previously cleaned.
A very similar work, signed and dated 1794, is available to view online in the collection of the National Gallery, London, under inventory number NG1878.
Hendrik Willem Schweickhardt (born Heinrich Wilhelm Schweickhardt; 1747–1797) was born in Hamm, Germany and is known to have been living in The Hague by June 1774 where he became a pupil of Hieronymus Lapis and started a family. He remained active there until settling in England in 1787. His daughter Katharina learned to draw and paint and became a poet; she married Willem Bilderdijk after having an affair with him in 1795 when he taught her and her sisters in London. He continued to paint and did quite well, between 1786 and 1796 he exhibited a total of 24 paintings at the Royal Academy and six at the Society of Artists. He painted mainly landscapes with cattle inspired by Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, particularly Aelbert Cuyp.
Schweickhardt probably died at 7, Arabella Road, Pimlico, London, where he was then living.
