Robert Griffier

Robert Griffier (London 1688-1750) A Rhenish river landscape with peasants dancing before an inn, avillage with a church and shipping beyond oil on panel 18½ x 22 7/8 in. (47 x 58.1 cm.) Erik Burg-Bergen, Berlin, where acquired by Galerie Heinemann, Munich, inv. no. 19099, on 2 August 1934 as'Cornelis or Hermann Saftleven', Flusslandschaft (Hainbach amRhein), where acquired by Galerie Hansen A.-G., Lucerne, on 27-28 August 1935. Weircliffe House, St Andrews Road, Exwick, Exeter.

LOT 123 ROBERT GRIFFIER LONDRES 1688 - VERS 1750 (?) OIES, CANARD DE BARBARIE, VANNEAU HUPPÉ ET AUTRES OISEAUX DANS UNPAYSAGE DE RIVIÈRE [ROBERT GRIFFIER ; GOOSES, MUSCOVY DUCK, NORTHERN LAPWING AND OTHERBIRDS IN A RIVER LANDSCAPE ; SIGNED UPPER RIGHT ; OIL ONCANVAS] 40,000—60,000 EUR measurements measurements note 153 x 144 cm ; 60 1/4 by 56 2/3 in

Robert Griffier British, 1688-1760 Syon House from the Thames Oil on canvas 18 x 26 inches (45.7 x 66 cm) Syon House, the West London home of the Duke of Northumberland, was originally an abbey-named for Mount Zion-of the Bridgettine Order, founded by Henry V in 1426. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the house was seized by Henry VIII and in the late seventeenth century became the property of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset. In the eighteenth century, it passed to Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, who commissioned the designer Robert Adam and the landscape architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown to redesign the house and grounds. Although this view was painted before that time, here the house appears much as it does today, with crenellated battlements visible from the Thames. Estimate $10,000-15,000 Lined. Minor scattered cracquelure. A few touches of inpaint in the figures and boats in the foreground and in the sky. Surface scuff running from the trees at right to the clouds. Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging.

Robert Griffier (London 1688-1750)
Summer: An extensive Rhenish landscape with boats at a quayside and peasants by an inn; and Winter: A frozen winter landscape with peasants
Add. Notes: the first signed 'R. GRIFFIER F·' (lower left) and the second signed 'R GRIFFIER FECIT' (lower right) oil on panel 20 x 24 3/8 in. (50.8 x 61.9 cm.) a pair (2)
Notes: Robert Griffier was the son of Jan Griffier, whom Arnold Houbraken called 'a burgher of the world (see A. Houbraken, De groote Schouburgh der Nederlandtsche konstschilders en schilderessen, III, Amsterdam, 1721, p. 360; see also K. Gibson, 'Griffier, Jan, senor (c. 1645-1718), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, VIII, Oxford, 2004, pp. 667-8). Jan came to England around 1632 and became so successful as a painter of Italianate and Rhenish scenes that he was able to spend 3000 guilders on a yacht, on which he lived on the Thames. It would appear that Robert was born after Jan's third marriage and soon after it seems that the family sailed back to the Low Countries, but were shipwrecked off Rotterdam and were left with only a few coins that one of the girls had stored away in her belt. By 1704 the Griffier family seems to have returned to London. Both Robert and his brother Jan Griffier II would have been trained by their father. Indeed, the present pair of pictures were for a long time mistaken as prime examples of Jan Griffier the Elder's oeuvre, in which a verdant, zig-zagging summer landscape with warm skies is contrasted with the cold blue and white hues of winter, each picture set against fantastical turreted castles nestled in mountainous landscapes and peopled with tiny bustling figures going about their daily lives. What little is known of Robert includes an interesting anecdote taken from the archives held in the Public Record Office, which note that in 1753 Robert was sued by his own mother, Mary Griffier, who stated that in 1731 she had lent her son, Robert the painter, the considerable sum of £100 to set up as a victualler. She had never been repaid, and now, aged eighty-five and impoverished, she wanted her money back. Robert Griffier's masterpiece is the amibitious Regatta on the Thames, signed and dated 'R.Griffier/1748', in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Pre-lot Text: THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (LOT 10)
Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 25 October 1958, lot 146, as Robert Griffier (1200 gns. to L. Koetser). with Leonard Koetser. Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 4 July 1990, lot 30, as Jan Griffier I (sold for £170,500). with Richard Green, where acquired by a collector, and by descent to the present owner.

Lot Description Robert Griffier (London 1688-c. 1750) A Rhenish river landscape, with peasants dancing before an inn, a village with a church and shipping beyond oil on panel 18½ x 22 7/8 in. (47 x 58.1 cm.) Provenance with Gallerie Heineman, Munich, 1909. Lot Notes The artist was the son of Jan Griffier I (c. 1645-1718), a Dutch artist who had moved to England in circa 1666. Both father and son painted small Rhenish landscapes of the present type, in the late manner of Herman Saftleven: river valleys shut in by high mountain chains and filled with buildings, ships and small figures. Robert's early work, when unsigned, is hard to distinguish from that of his father, and the oeuvres of the two have only recently begun to be distinguished.