Riviergezicht

1618–1632 · Virkested

Leiden

late 1620s

One of the creators of the “panoramic style”

In the late 1620s the “panoramic style” took shape in Dutch landscape painting; van Goyen, together with Salomon van Ruysdael and Pieter de Molijn, is regarded as its exponent and one of its creators. His compositions are marked by a low horizon, a high sky and taut diagonals of perspective.

1629

Meets Jan Porcellis

In 1629 van Goyen met Jan Porcellis, who bought a house van Goyen was then selling. The encounter left its mark: after moving to The Hague in 1632 van Goyen began painting the seascapes and river views most typical of his art, and partly under Porcellis’s influence he worked out a laconic three-plane colour scheme, the “tonal landscape”.

1630s

The last known victim of the tulip mania

Van Goyen’s pictures rarely fetched high prices, so he sought other income: he worked as an art dealer and auctioneer and speculated in tulips and real estate, becoming the last known victim of the tulip mania of the 1630s. Real estate, usually a safe investment, left him with enormous debts; one of his houses was rented by Paulus Potter.

1632–1634 · Virkested

The Hague