Arie Ketting de Koning 1857

Arie Ketting de Koningh (1815–1867) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and printmaker born in Dordrecht on 3 August 1815 and died in Amersfoort on 21 March 1867. He was trained by his father, the Dordrecht landscape painter Leendert de Koningh, and belonged to a family of artists that included his sister Sophia and brothers John and Leonard. He was associated with Dordrecht’s Teekengenootschap Pictura and lived in Haarlem from 1846 to 1862, later moving to Amersfoort. Landscape was his principal subject. His characteristic motifs include riverbanks, meadows, farms, mills and views around Dordrecht, frequently animated by cattle, herders or small figures. His work reflects the nineteenth-century Dutch landscape tradition in its carefully constructed recession, broad skies and emphasis on atmospheric light. Rather than dramatic effects, he favoured quietly observed scenery, with tonal contrasts and judiciously placed staffage giving scale and movement to the composition.

Ketting de Koningh also produced lithographs and etchings. A particularly revealing early graphic work, Kudde een rivier overstekend, was made after a design by his father, demonstrating the close relationship between their practices. A series of views around Dordrecht was published in 1839.

His work is distinguished by the combination of Dordrecht’s inherited landscape tradition with a more direct interest in local topography and animal life.