Amsterdam 1741 – Amsterdam 1794
A pair of Winter Landcapes
Signed and dated ‘Schepper fecit 1769’ and signed ‘H. Schepper fecit’
Oil on canvas
H. 17 cm. W. 25, 7 cm.
PROVENANCE
Possibly anonymous sale at Johannes van Wessem, Schouten, Smit | Utrecht | 26 July 1786 | Lot 56
Private collection
LITERATURE
Rijdt, R.J. te (2009). ‘De tekenaar en schilder H. Schepper ‘aangekleed’ tot: Hendrik Schepper (1741 Amsterdam 1794)’. In: Delineavit et Sculpsit 32, pp. 42-48
CATALOGUE NOTE
Hendrik Schepper was an artist from the eighteenth century who has been forgotten over the years. Even his first name was no longer known. In the 1980s, the first research on him was conducted because several of his drawings had been donated to the Amsterdam City Archives. Paintings by his hand were not known. A first painting from his oeuvre surfaced at the art dealership Kunsthandel P. de Boer in Amsterdam in 2006. This painting of a country estate is now in the collection of Fondation Custodia in Paris. An article by Robert Jan te Rijdt shed more light on his life and oeuvre. He published the then fully unknown oeuvre, consisting of only a handful of drawings and one painting. Afterwards, a second painting surfaced, A view of the Kloveniersdoelen in Amsterdam. These two landscapes are the newest additions to his oeuvre: two winter scenes, one of which is dated ‘1769’.
Schepper, who lived and worked in Amsterdam, had a close connection to Utrecht through his mother. It is therefore likely that he also created cityscapes of Utrecht, which may now be known under a different name. Historic auction catalogues show that he also painted a view of Zierikzee. He knew this place from fist hand, since he got married there in 1763. On July 26, 1786, several landscapes by Schepper were sold in Utrecht: “2 paysages par H. Schepper”. (auction Johannes van Wessem, Utrecht, Schouten, Smit, July 26, 1786, lot 56) It is certainly not inconceivable that these are the two landscapes in question.