Traveller in a Duch Village

Meerhoud Jan (Meerhout) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, probably born around 1630 or 1633 in Gorinchem (Gorkum), The Netherlands. He is known for his luminous 17th-century landscapes, mountain scenes, maritime views, and cityscapes, capturing the quiet poetry of water and sky in the Dutch landscape tradition.

Details of Meerhout’s life remain scarce. According to the RKD, his exact date of birth is uncertain, but records confirm that he married in 1650. Throughout his career, he worked in Utrecht, Heusden, Dordrecht, and Gorinchem, and is noted to have worked in Amsterdam between 1630 and 1650, where several families bearing the Meerhout name were registered.

Meerhout’s cityscapes and river scenes often echo the atmospheric qualities found in the early work of Jan van Goyen, suggesting his place within this influential tradition of landscape painting. The date and place of his death remain unclear. A Johannes Meerhout living on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam was buried on March 27, 1677, in the Nieuwe Kerk, though it is not definitively proven that this was the painter himself. Some sources ambiguously suggest his death occurred around 1676 or even later, yet 1677 is most commonly accepted.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding his biography, Meerhout’s work endures. Today, his paintings can be found in private collections, such as the Semenov Collection in St. Petersburg, as well as in major public collections, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Dordrechts Museum, Museum Bredius in The Hague, Loevestein Castle, and the Centraal Museum Utrecht. His works are also housed internationally at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, in Dessau (Germany), and in the museums of Bagneres-de-Bigorre and Abbeville (France). The Municipal Museum in Frankfurt also holds an engraving of him, further testifying to his quiet but enduring legacy in Dutch Golden Age painting.

JAN MEERHOUD 1633–1677
Dutch School

VILLAGE VIEW
Panel – Signed – 21 x 25

Label on the reverse

Exhibited: “Dutch Masterpieces of the 17th Century”,
Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, 1988

Literature: “Dutch Masterpieces of the 17th Century”,
Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, 1988, exhibition catalogue, p. 53, illustrated.

With documentation by Dr. Walther Bernt, Munich, 1967

Provenance:
– Old collection Jan Bosscha, Amsterdam (c. 1909)
– Old collection C.J. Mackenzie, London (before 1918)
– Private collection, Germany, 1967
– Private collection, Switzerland, 1988