Lot 57: MOSES VAN WTENBROUCK

MOSES VAN WTENBROUCK THE HAGUE CIRCA 1596-IN OR BEFORE 1647 ARCADIAN LANDSCAPE WITH RESTING SHEPHERDS WITH THEIR CATTLE, ANTIQUITIES BEYOND oil on panel 41.2 by 61.1 cm.

U. Weisner, 'Die Gemälde des Moyses van Uytterbroeck', in Oud Holland, vol. 79, 1964, no. 4, p. 220, no. 14.

With Dr. R. Grosse, Berlin, 1938;
Mr. L. Berlin,
By whom (anonymously) offered, 30 March 1939, lot 995;
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Lange, 25 January 1940, lot 35 (reoffered by Mr. L. Berlin);
Anonymous sale, ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Philips, 15 April 1991, lot 34, for £ 11.000.

In 1620, Van Wtenbrouck entered the painter's guild in The Hague, where he worked his entire life. Already in his own time, he was celebrated for his Italianate landscapes with historical or mythological subjects, many of which were taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses.υ1 His Arcadian landscapes appealed to an intellectual audience and as a result, he was one of the best paid painters in his days.υ2 He also painted a number of more serene and monochrome pastoral landscapes, with reclining shepherds and shepherdesses surrounded by their herd, such as this painting, and one sold in these Rooms, 10 May 2005, lot 104.

1. See for example his Forest Pool with Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, oil on panel, 43 by 66 cm., Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, The Hague, inv. no. NK 2532, in E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse Schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Zwolle 1999, p. 272, fig. 1.
2. op.cit., p. 272.