Lot 49: Robert Griffier (London 1688-c. 1750)

A Rhenish river landscape, with peasants dancing before an inn, a village with a church and shipping beyond oil on panel 181/2 x 22 7/8 in. (47 x 58.1 cm.) PROVENANCE with Gallerie Heineman, Munich, 1909. NOTES The artist was the son of Jan Griffier I (c. 1645-1718), a Dutch artist who had moved to England in circa 1666. Both father and son painted small Rhenish landscapes of the present type, in the late manner of Herman Saftleven: river valleys shut in by high mountain chains and filled with buildings, ships and small figures. Robert's early work, when unsigned, is hard to distinguish from that of his father, and the oeuvres of the two have only recently begun to be distinguished.