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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the RKD for confirming the attribution to Abraham Danielsz. Hondius; in the RKD files it is noted that Dr. Marijke de Kinkelder suggests a date for the picture of circa 1650-3.
The composition is comparable to the painting sold, Sotheby's, London, 4 April 1987, lot 70. The 1997 sale catalogue (see provenance, above) suggested that the two might have originally been intended as pendants, but this seems unlikely, the compositions being almost too similar in reverse, whilst the rock face to the left of the former picture would be very unusual in two pictures designed to complement each other. It is more probable that both are just part of a group of similar works painted by Hondius in the 1650s, including such pictures as that dated 1654 sold in these Rooms, 9 December 1988, lot 90; that in the Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Poznan, inv. no. Mo860; and the Landscape with Saint Hubert and the Stag of circa 1650, one of the earliest known of the group, in the Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam (inv. no. NK2916; see Old master paintings. An illustrated summary catalogue, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, Zwolle-The Hague 1992, p. 142, no. 1159.
Although now well recognised as part of Hondius' oeuvre - and arguably some of the finest - their separateness from his more frequent depictions of animals in the wild explain their frequent misattributions in the past: to artists such as Jan Weenix, Jacob Ochtervelt and, as here, Ludolf de Jongh. It has been remarked that the group reveal the influence of Flemish painting, although the means of that influence remains speculative; one unlikely theory is that Hondius was inspired by Carl Ruthart, the German painter of hunting scenes who has sometimes, wrongly, been called his teacher. Another possible intermediary was Juriaen Jacobsz. (1625/6-95), a pupil of Frans Snyders, who lived in Amsterdam from 1658 to 1668; yet Hondius moved to Amsterdam only in 1659, and this evidently does not explain the pictures pre-dating that year. The most likely possibility is that he knew etchings by Fyt and prints after compositions by Snyders: these he might have seen in the studio of Cornelis Saftleven, who stayed in Antwerp for some time around 1632-4.
The composition is comparable to the painting sold, Sotheby's, London, 4 April 1987, lot 70. The 1997 sale catalogue (see provenance, above) suggested that the two might have originally been intended as pendants, but this seems unlikely, the compositions being almost too similar in reverse, whilst the rock face to the left of the former picture would be very unusual in two pictures designed to complement each other. It is more probable that both are just part of a group of similar works painted by Hondius in the 1650s, including such pictures as that dated 1654 sold in these Rooms, 9 December 1988, lot 90; that in the Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Poznan, inv. no. Mo860; and the Landscape with Saint Hubert and the Stag of circa 1650, one of the earliest known of the group, in the Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam (inv. no. NK2916; see Old master paintings. An illustrated summary catalogue, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, Zwolle-The Hague 1992, p. 142, no. 1159.
Although now well recognised as part of Hondius' oeuvre - and arguably some of the finest - their separateness from his more frequent depictions of animals in the wild explain their frequent misattributions in the past: to artists such as Jan Weenix, Jacob Ochtervelt and, as here, Ludolf de Jongh. It has been remarked that the group reveal the influence of Flemish painting, although the means of that influence remains speculative; one unlikely theory is that Hondius was inspired by Carl Ruthart, the German painter of hunting scenes who has sometimes, wrongly, been called his teacher. Another possible intermediary was Juriaen Jacobsz. (1625/6-95), a pupil of Frans Snyders, who lived in Amsterdam from 1658 to 1668; yet Hondius moved to Amsterdam only in 1659, and this evidently does not explain the pictures pre-dating that year. The most likely possibility is that he knew etchings by Fyt and prints after compositions by Snyders: these he might have seen in the studio of Cornelis Saftleven, who stayed in Antwerp for some time around 1632-4.