Three Windmills
Georges Michel (1763 - 1843), c. 1814-1843
oil on paper on canvas, 50.3 cm x 69.4 cm
Credits: The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
This expansive landscape with a lowering thundery sky recalls 17th-century landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael. Georges Michel was probably very familiar with such works because he restored paintings in the Louvre. The dramatic illumination in this painting can be compared to that in Ruisdael’s Le coup de soleil, which had been in the museum’s collection since 1784.
Mesdag was one of the first admirers of Georges Michel’s work. In 1888 the Dutch art critic Vosmaer wrote: ‘Mr Mesdag is probably the only person in the Netherlands to own a work by Georges Michel.’
- Object number
- hwm0260
- Dimensions
- 50.3 cm x 69.4 cm, 80 cm x 100 cm, 11 cm
- Provenance
- Sold by Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris for FRF 2000, 9 April 1888; sold by Boussod, Valadon & Cie, The Hague (no. 19165, Moulins à vent) to Hendrik Willem Mesdag, The Hague for NLG 1440, 1 May 1897; Collection Museum Mesdag donated by Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten to the State of the Netherlands, 14 May 1903; Rijksmuseum H.W. Mesdag, The Hague, from 1 August 1903; in trust of the Mauritshuis, The Hague, between 1934 and 1990; in trust of the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, from 1 April 1990; Museum Mesdag, in trust of the Van Gogh Museum Foundation, Amsterdam, from 1 July 1994, under the name of De Mesdag Collectie from 2011.
- artist
- Georges Michel
- Credits
- The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Van Goghs brieven. De kunstenaar aan het woord, 9 October 2009-3 January 2010
Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Rembrandts landschappen, 22 June-6 September 2006
Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal, Rembrandts landschappen
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, De keuze van Vincent. Van Goghs Musée imaginaire, 14 February-15 June 2003
Brüggen, Viktoria von der, Dorey, Anaïs, Luijten, Ger, Georges Michel 1763-1843 : Le paysage sublime, Bourg-en-Bresse, 2017, p. 8, 28-29
Heugten, Sjraar van, Van Gogh in Provence : modernizing tradition, Arles, 2016, p. 73, 75
Dijk, Maite van, Suijver, Renske, Fitski, M., Smits, C., De Mesdag Collectie, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 93
Dijk, Maite van, Suijver, Renske, Fitski, M., Smits, C., The Mesdag Collection, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 93
Bosma, Marja, Vergeest, Aukje, Bakker, Nienke, Franse Passie : Courbet, Daubigny, Monet : Franse schilderkunst in Nederlands bezit, Utrecht, 2006, p. 48-49
Vergeest, Aukje, The French collection : nineteenth-century French paintings in Dutch public collections, Amsterdam, 2000, p. 224-225
Bodt, Saskia de, Leeman, Fred, Leeuw, Ronald de, Pennock, Hanna, Museum Mesdag : catalogue of paintings and drawings, Zwolle, 1996, p. 59, 333