Artwork
Landscape with Open Gate
Landscape with Open Gate is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Pieter de Molijn. It dates from 1632 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The physical construction relies on the durability of the panel, which serves as the foundation for the oil medium.
Executed in 1630, this landscape is rendered in oil paint on a wooden panel support. The work measures 33.6 cm in height and 47.9 cm in width. As a product of Pieter de Molijn, the piece exemplifies the artist's approach to the landscape genre during this period, utilizing the standard materials of the time to depict an open gate within a natural setting.
The physical construction relies on the durability of the panel, which serves as the foundation for the oil medium.
History & Provenance
Landscape with Open Gate was painted in 1630 by Pieter Molijn as an oil on panel. After its creation the work entered a private collection in France, later passing through an art dealer in Lille. In 1980 it was acquired by Arthur K. and Susan H. Wheelock of Washington, D.C., and six years later, in 1986, the National Gallery of Art obtained the painting through a combination of gift and partial purchase from the Wheelocks, where it remains today. No documentary evidence of a specific commission for the piece has been identified.
Landscape with Open Gate is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The painting entered the museum in 1986 as a gift and partial purchase from Arthur K. and Susan H. Wheelock, who had acquired it in 1980 from a private collection in France through an art dealer in Lille. Its earlier provenance therefore moves from a French private collection to a Lille dealer, then to the Wheelocks before museum acquisition. The work is listed in the National Gallery of Art’s collection and has remained part of its permanent holdings, though the sources do not record specific exhibition appearances.
Overview
This painting, Landscape with Open Gate, is an oil on panel work by Pieter Molijn, created around 1632. It depicts a somber natural scene, characterized by its muted palette and a sense of quiet desolation. The composition centers on a path leading towards an open gate, inviting contemplation of the depicted environment.
Subject & Meaning
The artwork presents a desolate, weather-beaten landscape. A gnarled, bare tree dominates the foreground, its contorted branches reaching over a winding dirt path. In the distance, a low stone wall with an open gate suggests a boundary or passage, yet no human figures are present.
This rustic gateway stands as the sole indication of human presence within an otherwise wild and untamed setting, evoking a sense of solitude.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Pieter de Molijn (6 April 1595 in London – 23 March 1661 in Haarlem) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver of English birth and Flemish descent.
