Lot 279: Attributed to Herman van Swanevelt , Woerden circa 1600 - 1655 Paris An extensive Italianate landscape with travellers and goat herders resting in the foreground oil on canvas

brushed on the reverse with the inventory number: 95 oil on canvas

measurements note 98.4 by 133 cm.; 38 5/8 by 52 3/8 in.

We are grateful to Dr. Anne Charlotte Steland for tentatively endorsing the attribution to Swanevelt on the basis of photographs and for suggesting a date of execution circa 1633/34 whilst the artist was living in Rome. Dr. Steland has compared the rendering of the sky and trees in the present work to other landscapes painted by Swanevelt during the 1630s, for example his Landscape with Apollo and Marseus in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.υ1 Dr. Steland has pointed out that, if not by Swanevelt himself, this landscape must surely have been painted by an artist working very closely in his circle, such as Francesco Catalani di Benevento (circa 1610-1681). Catalani lived with Swanevelt in Rome from 1634-6 and copied his style very closely. The resulting landscapes produced by Catalani during this period were so similar to Swanevelt's own that the latter finally brought a lawsuit against Catalani in 1636. Dr. Steland will be including this painting in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Swanevelt. 1. Paesaggio e veduta da Poussin a Canaletto: Dipinti da Palazzo Barberini, ex. cat., Turin, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, 2006, p. 132, cat. no. 7, reproduced in colour p. 64.