Lot 34: An arcadian wooded landscape with nymphs and cattle, a figure dancing around a maypole beyond

Moses van Uyttenbroeck (The Hague c. 1590-1647)
An arcadian wooded landscape with nymphs and cattle, a figure dancing around a maypole beyond
oil on panel
47.3 x 66.5 cm.
with two wax seals on reverse

The Hague, Schilderkundig Genootschap Pulchri Studio, Catalogue de la Collection Goudstikker d'Amsterdam , November-December 1920, no. 121. D.A. Hoogendijk, Amsterdam, 1932, no. 101.
Gouda, Stedelijk Museum, on loan.

with Rudolf Peltzer, Cologne, 1914; Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 26/27 May 1914, lot 195.
M. Onnes van Nijenrode, Breukelen.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1920.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

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The younger brother of the painter Jan van Uyttenbroeck (c. 1581-1651), who was accepted into the Guild of St Luke in The Hague in 1614, Moses van Uyttenbroeck is best known for his pastoral scenes, sometimes depicting themes from the Old Testament and Classical mythology or as evident in the present work, representations of nymphs resting among grazing animals.

Moses' earliest known work is the dated etching of Peter Healing the Lame Man at the Door of the Temple of 1615; although still slightly awkward in the way it is executed, it shows the influence of the Amsterdam painter Pieter Lastman. In 1620, six years after his brother, Moses himself entered the Guild of St Luke, The Hague, of which he was dean in 1627 and possibly again in 1633. The picture generally considered to be his earliest work (Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts), probably from about the time he joined the guild, and depicts a spacious, dramatic landscape with a riverbank in the foreground, a large tree-covered range of hills and small figures. Van Uyttenbroeck subsequently developed his compositional style, building up his pictures from landscape elements placed close to one another rather in the manner of a stage set, often using boulders, running or still water and tall plants. Hills or trees usually define the space on one or both sides, and the backgrounds consist of gentler, less precipitous wooded countryside. During his lifetime van Uyttenbroeck was highly regarded: Constantijn Huygens mentioned him with approval in his autobiography, and Prince Frederick Henry bought his paintings and employed him in the decoration of Honselaarsdijk. Dirk Dalens (d. 1676) was his pupil, as probably, was his son Matheus van Uyttenbroeck.