Lot 2: FREDERIK VAN VALCKENBORCH

FREDERIK VAN VALCKENBORCH ANTWERP 1566 - 1623 NUREMBERG AN EXTENSIVE WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH TRAVELERS ON A PATH oil on panel 17 1/4 by 25 1/2 in.; 43.8 by 64.8 cm.

Berlin, Royal Akademie der Künste, Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz, July-August 1925, no. 419 (as Flemish Master circa 1600 [Style of Valkenborch]).

Berlin, Royal Akademie der Künste, Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz, July-August 1925, p. 63, cat. no. 419.

In the collection of the family of the present owner since at least 1925.

The present work reflects the influence of Patenir and Pieter Brueghel, which formed the next generation of artists in the Low Countries. It is a style that combines naturalism and fantasy, mainly panoramas, painted from a high point of view, but nonetheless with a remarkable attention to detail. An Extensive Wooded Landscape with Travelers on a Path clearly shows this influence in its dense juxtaposition of woods, rocky hills and meandering paths executed with a notable lightness of touch. The artist's treatment of the foliage, built up in short strokes of brown, green and white, enlivens the surface and carries our eyes back along the wooded path to the church beyond.

We are grateful to Alexander Wied for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.