Lot 276: Pieter Stalpaert , Brussels circa 1572 - before 1639 Amsterdam An extensive landscape with travellers on a path by a river, a cottage beyond oil on panel

oil on panel

measurements note 27 by 40 in.; 68.5 by 101.5 cm.

J. Briels, Peintres flamands au berceau du Siècle d'Or hollandais, Antwerp 1997, p. 227, reproduced in color fig. 354.

Anonymous sale ("From a Private Collection"), New York, Christie's, January 11, 1989, lot 26 (as by Sebastian Vrancx);
With Jack Kilgore, New York, from whom acquired by the present owner circa 1993.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
The attribution to the rare artist Pieter Stalpaert, of whom very few works are known, was first proposed by Dr. Jan Briels in a written communication dated March 3, 1993. He considers the work to have been painted circa 1620. He later published it in his book, Peintres flamands au berceau du Siècle d'Or hollandais (see Literature). Pieter Stalpaert was a 17th century Flemish landscape and seascape painter whose known oeuvre consists of four works, signed and dated 1612 (Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam), 1617 (private collection), 1628 (Galerie Heide Hübner, Würzburg) and 1635 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Stalpaert was born in Brussels in 1572, the son of a tapestry maker. He moved in 1588 with his family to Delft in Holland. It is certain that he worked in Dordrecht from 1597 to 1598 and from 1598 until his death in Amsterdam. He married twice and had a son named Daniël Stalpaert from his second marriage, born in 1615, a painter and town architect in Amsterdam. The composition of the present picture reflects the tradition of 17th century Flemish landscape painting, which is characterized by the division of nature into two distinct motifs. On one side the artist would place a hill with farms under trees and on the other he would paint a steep valley with a river and a rolling terrain beyond. This form of landscape construction was practiced by artists such as Gillis van Conincxloo, Hans Bol and Gillis de Hondecoeter. The figures in the present painting are probably by another master's hand and relate most closely to those by David Vinckboons, Esaias van den Velde and Sebastian Vrancx. The coloration of the present work - with brownish-yellow foliage and greenish-blue hills highlighted with lively accents - adds to its beauty. The transparent blues that the artist uses to create the cloudy skies are typical of Stalpaert.