Lot 2130: Jan Siberechts (Antwerp 1627-1703 London)

Jan Siberechts (Antwerp 1627-1703 London)
A stag hunt with hounds bringing down a stag in the foreground, huntsmen beyond
signed and indistinctly dated 'Siberechts 1678(?)' (lower right)
oil on canvas
31 7/8 x 47 in. (81 x 109.4 cm.)

We are grateful to Fred Meijer and Marijke de Kinkelder, of the RKD, The Hague, for confirming the attribution. They date the painting to Siberechts' English period (after circa 1672-4). The animals may have been painted by a second hand.

Siberechts, who arrived in England from Flanders in 1673, was the finest topographical painter to work in England in the late seventeenth century. His patrons included Charles II's minister, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Sir Thomas Thynne of Longleat. Siberechts became a master in Antwerp in 1648 and his earliest dated works are stylistically akin to the paintings of the Dutch Italianate landscape painters. He remained in England until his death in 1703.