Adriaen van Stalbemt

(Antwerp 1580-1662)

Elegant figures in a wooded landscape

Footnotes

After reviewing high resolution photographs, in a letter to the current owner, dated 3 April 2023, Dr Klaus Ertz confirms an attribution to Adriaen van Stalbemt for the present landscape and dates it to the early 17th century when his compositions, consisting of a fore, middle and background, were modelled on those of Jan Brueghel the Elder. He further identifies features that are recognizable traits of Stalbemt's work throughout his entire career, including the sharp outlined dark 'breakoff' edge of the foreground that he refers to in his monograph, Ertz/Nitze-Ertz, Adriaen van Stalbemt, 1580-1662, Krtisischer Katalog der Gemälde, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik: Flämische Maler im Umkreis der Grossen Meister vol. II, Lingen, 2018 (cat. 60), as well as the small staffage figures (ibid. cat. 19), small animals (ibid. cat 73), dead tree stumps (ibid. cat. 11), and small bridges (ibid. cat. 311). He draws particular attention to the 'typical parasitic-creepers on the mostly dead trees, which strikingly bring out the dead branches of the tree tops darkly against the bright sky.' He also explains how Stalbemt's landscapes are often a 'background foil' for representations of daily life, as we find in the present landscape, as well as of Christian, mythological and allegorical scenes. In these he rarely collaborated with colleagues to paint the staffage.