THOMAS WIJCK (c.1616-1677)

A VIEW OVER THE BAY OF NAPLES FROM THE TORRE DI S. VINCENZO, VESUVIUS TO THE BACKGROUND
Signed & dated u.r. Thomas / Wijck / in Napoli / agosto 165[?]9
With various inscriptions (colour notes?) in pen & ink throughout
Pen & ink with brown wash
23.6 x 38.7 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Maria Paternò Castello Ricci (c.1847-1915) [Lugt 5081];
Anonymous sale, Gonnelli Casa d'Aste, Florence, 25.05.2023, lot 129 (as Thomas Wijck);
With Stephane Rénard Fine Art, France
 
 
 
 
 
The present work corresponds very closely to Wijck's undated etching A Harbour with a Round Tower (see fig. I above (1)), which takes some artistic license with the architectural arrangements of the harbour at Naples whereas the present work is more strictly topographical. A near-contemporary view by Willem Schellinks shows the ruined tower of Saint Vincent (now destroyed, but depicted as late as 1778 in a similar state of ruin, see fig. II above (2)) facing in the opposite direction to our view, with the distinctive lighthouse on the Molo also visible and Mt. Versuvius to beyond, as in our sheet. (3)
 
 
 
Thomas Wyck, sometimes spelled Wijck, is believed to have been born in Beverwijk in either 1616 (as Arnold Houbraken wrote in 1719) or shortly before 1621 (as more recent scholarship has argued). His name first appears in the registers of the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem in 1642, and from then onwards he is well-documented. He was a student of Adriaen van Ostade, one of the foremost genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age, and his teacher's influence is clearly visible in Wijck's well-known drawings of Italianate courtyards and well-lit interiors, both in their execution and handling. 
 
The artist is thought to have journeyed to Italy at some point after his marriage, in c.1644, and the combination of an Italian subject and the use of Italian paper provide concrete evidence of his presence in Italy, therefore confirming Houbraken’s account that the artist used to make drawings of Italian buildings ‘from life.'  The present work, which is inscribed in Napoli, may have been executed in situ, though Wijck's presence back in Haarlem in 1659 is attested to, and it is possible therefore that this was drawn from memory in his studio. 
 
Certainly, Wijck's paintings and drawings show carefully observed architecture and topography that indicates close study from life. Wijck specialised in paintings of exotic harbour scenes, of the sort popularised both by him and his peers such as Nicolas Berchem, the aforementioned Jan Baptist Weenix, Jan Asselyn and Johannes Lingelbach, who repeated these popular subjects throughout the 1640s and afterwards. Several of Wijck's capricci of this type contain edifices clearly derived from the architecture seen here, with the distinctive round tower and lighthouse arranged in various configurations.