Govert Dircksz. Camphuysen (The Netherlands 1623/24‑1672). A trompe l’oeil with a view of the old town of Stockholm.

To be sold at Uppsala Auktionskammare’s Important Sale Week 10 – 13 June 2025

Lot 613 Govert Dircksz. Camphuysen (The Netherlands 1623/24‑1672). A trompe l’oeil: a cat seated near a jewellery box at a dormer watching a dove at the open window, a view of Petersenska Huset (previously Piperska palatset) and the tower of the Riddarholmskyrkan in Stockholm beyond, a fopwatch on a ribbon against the wall on the right. Signed Govert Camphuys Stockholm on a leaflet on the window sill lower left. Oil on relined canvas, 92.5 x 73.5 cm.

Uppsala Auktionskammare would like to thank Prof. Johan Mårtelius for valuable information when cataloguing this lot.

Estimate

800.000 – 1.000.000 SEK
€ 73.000 – 91.000

Provenance

(Probably) Thomas Stuart Anderson (1828‑1905), Lindore Abbey, Newburgh-on-Tay, 1871.
The collection of Consul General and Director Henry Wallenberg (1908‑1993).

Exhibited

Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, ”Christina, Queen of Sweden – a Personality of European Civilisation”, 29 July-16 Oktober 1966, room 11 (Stockholm), cat. no. 125.

Literature

(Probably) Notes and Queries, 4th series, VII, 4 March 1871, under Queries p. 188 (“G.Camphausen – I have an old painting, signed, on a painted tablet (part of the picture), ‘G. Camphausen, Stockholm’. When did he live? Was he noted? Any information about this artist will be most thankfully received by T.S.A./Lindoxe Abbey, Newburgh-on-Tay”).
(Probably) Olof Granberg, Catalogue raisonné de tableaux anciens inconnus jusqu’ici dans les collections privées de la Suède, 1886, p. 104.
(Probably) A. Bredius, E.W. Moes, De schilders Camphuysen, in: Oud-Holland, 1903, p. 208.
(Probably) Bertil Rapp, Djur och stilleben i karolinskt måleri, 1951, cat. no. 20.
Karl Erik Steneberg in Svenskt konstnärslexikon, vol I, 1952, mentioned p. 272.

Last seen at the Christina, Queen of Sweden exhibition at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm in 1966 and since hidden in a Swedish private collection, the recent reappearance of Govert Camphuysen’s trompe l’oeil with a view of the old town of Stockholm brings back to light an important visual record of the artist’s stay in Sweden in the years 1652-1665. Fully signed and annotated Stockholm, the painting not only confirms that Camphuysen painted this during his years in the North, moreover the view through the open window is to be identified as Gamla Stan with the façade of Petersenska huset (previously Piperska palatset) and the tower of Riddarholmskyrkan beyond. The playful and intimate nature of the painting suggests that this may well have been the view from the artist’s own house. 

Govert Dircksz.Camphuysen I was born into a dynasty of painters from Gorinchem, a town situated half way between Antwerp and Amsterdam on the river Merwede. The founder of the dynasty was Rafael Camphuysen I (died 1595), who settled in Gorinchem as a surgeon and painter probably originating from the Southern Netherlands. Of Rafael I’s two sons Govert Rafaelsz and Dirck Rafaelsz. the eldest Govert took up painting as his father. The third generation was formed by the four sons of both Govert Rafaelsz. and Dirck Rafaelsz: Rafael Govertsz. (1597/8-1657), Joachim Govertsz. (1601/2-1659), Raphael Dircksz. (1616-1691) and Govert Dircksz. (1623/4-1672), who all became successful painters. Of these four Govert Dircksz., the painter of the present trompe l’oeil, was the most prolific. 

Abraham Bredius and Ernst Wilhelm Moes in Oud Holland 1903 (see under literature) were the first to draw attention to the life and career of the various Camphuysen painters. Based on Olof Granberg, Catalogue Raisonné de Tableaux Anciens inconnus jusqu’ici dans les collections privées de la Suede, 1886 and other sources, they were also the first to report on Govert Dircksz. Swedish years from 1652 until 1665. 

Camphuysen probably left Amsterdam because of heavy debts and first travelled to Gottorf in Schleswig Holstein to work for the local court. Probably at the recommendation of this Gottorf court, he travelled to Sweden where he became court painter to Dowager Maria Eleonora in Nyköping from 1653-55; he later worked for Queen Hedvig Eleonora. From 1659-61 Camphuysen was in Stockholm and subsequently entered the service of Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie in Jakobsdal. He was back in Amsterdam by 1665. 

While Camphuysen’s Swedish artistic output has long been neglected, the recent Gerson digital Sweden project at the RKD is to be acknowledged as the first attempt in grouping Camphuysen’s Swedish works since Bertil Rapp in 1951. From the works so far published on the database, it appears that while in Sweden Camphuysen mostly painted large canvases for decoration purposes, such as the landscape with a dog by a birch log painted for Gripsholm and the one with a sportsman in a landscape, now both in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, inv. no. NMGrh 1208 and NM 2337; the landscape with farmers milking cattle painted for Jakobsdal and now in the collection of Baron Ramel at Övedskloster and the two canvases with gooses in the Malmö museum and in a private collection at Finspång. To these are added the famous ”View of Tre Kronor Castle” in Stockholm of 1661, in the Stadsmuseet, Stockholm, the ”Money Lender”, last seen with David Koetser Zürich at TEFAF Maastricht in 2018 and the painting of a woman looking from a window on a table laden with dead game and fish in a private collection. In addition, Karl Erik Steneberg in Svenskt konstnärslexikon, vol I, 1952, also mentions a still life with a cat in a private collection, Stockholm – possibly the painting presented in this sale. 

The present painting strikes by its inventive composition combining a niche, a trompe l’oeil and a city view. It not only takes a unique place in the group of Camphuysen’s Swedish works but also his entire oeuvre, in which mostly themes of rural life predominate. The variety of themes in the Swedish works suggest that Camphuysen while in Sweden expanded the range of his painterly motifs to serve his mostly aristocratic commissioners. 

The fact that most depictions of Stockholm from the 16th and 17th centuries are black and white prints, makes the rare paintings even more colourful and important for the perception of the city at the time. Camphuysen’s View of Tre Kronor Castle has hitherto been one of these scarce examples of a view from the Swedish capital by the mid 1600s. The present view through the window depicting the buildings in Gamla Stan makes this an historical document, where the past is brought to life. The characteristic renaissance style gable belongs to the Piperska palatset (today Petersenska huset), newly erected in the Aurora block when Camphuysen lived in Stockholm. The building with the stepped gable, most probably was an older, medieval construction, later replaced by another building in the 1700s. The angle of the view suggests that the window in the painting can be placed in a house on Stora Nygatan, possibly where the artist resided in Stockholm.

Govert Camphuysen was one of the few Dutch painters travelling to the North in the 1600s. It is possible that the success of Allart van Everdingen (1621-1675) had a positive impact on his choice to move to Sweden. The Dutch-Swedish relations originated in an economic collaboration where the Dutch were commercial leaders in Europe and Sweden a vital supplier of raw materials. This motivated Dutch businessmen to move to Sweden, and thus also Dutch architects, engineers and artists. Camphuysen’s presence meant that he was, alongside Swedish David Klöcker von Ehrenstrahl, one of the first to introduce animal paintings and still life paintings in Sweden.   ■

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