The story

Louis Apol was famous for his winter scenes. This painting is a great example of his skills. A wintery sun shines through the trees. On the flat river a boat is pulled by a horse, walking on the snowy path next to the water. Behind the path full of trails in the snow are houses behind trees. On the opposite side of the river is a mansion and in the distance a windmill. In everything this picture reminds us of the river Vecht between Loenen and Maarssen. Louis Apol had his breakthrough at the age of 24 with a winter landscape at an exhibition of living masters in Amsterdam. His winter paintings were such a success and so real that he was invited to paint on the scientific expedition of the ship Willem Barendsz to Nova Zembla in the summer of 1880. All the watercolors and drawings he made on this journey were a great source of inspiration throughout his career. He painted a panorama of Nova Zembla with a stuffed polar bear and wooden huts near Artis, the Amsterdam zoo. This panorama was on view for many years and a great success. For his forest scenes and other winter scenes he used photos of snow and snowy landscapes. His photos enabled him to paint snow in a very natural way in all its varieties. Drifts against some reeds, snow lying on a pole or on a branch or trampled snow on a path. Even in this painting all these various types have been painted to perfection. This painting used to belong, probably even from its origin, to D.J. van Houten (1861-1939), a chocolate factory owner in Weesp. Member of parliament Van Houten lived in the Villa Casparus in Weesp. This huge mansion with 99 rooms was constructed between 1887 and 1901 after a design by the Amsterdam architect Abraham Salm. When van Houten died in 1939, his furniture and paintings including this painting by Apol were put up for auction.

Signed lower left

Literature: P.A. Scheen, Honderd jaren Nederlandsche Schilder- en Teekenkunst, Den Haag 1946, plate 262

Provenance: Collection D.J. van Houten Sr., Weesp His auction October 3-6 1939, Olthoff Waltmann and Co Hilversum, lot no. 877 Private collection Auction December 10-13 1974, A. Mak Dordrecht, lot 3 Private collection