Jan Wijnants

Possibly C. Brunner, Paris, 1911;
Private collection, England;
Anonymous sale (`The Property of a Deceased's Estate', London (Christie's), 14 December 1990, lot 101, for £66,000;
With Jack Kilgore, New York;
With Noortman Gallery, Maastricht;
Private collection, the Netherlands.

Possibly C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VIII, London 1927, p. 579, no. 709;
K. Eisele, Jan Wijnants (1631/32 - 1684), Stuttgart 2000, pp. 139-40, no. 99, reproduced fig. 99, and colour plate XIX.

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg, who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas appears in a good condition; there are no obvious planar deformations and the overall tension appears good. The adhesion between the original and the lining canvas also appears good. The paint layers overall appear in good condition. There are no obviously recent damages or loss and the adhesion between the paint and ground layers and the support appears good. There is a network of craqulure present which appears stable. There appears to be at least two campaigns of restoration present, the majority of this located along the lower and upper edges. There is also an area of over-paint remaining in the centre of the sky line where an area of cloud appeared to have been toned. The sky appears reworked; there is a secondary layer of paint which appears to have been applied over the dried paint. The over-paint present remaining from the previous restoration campaigns is not visually disturbing. It appears to cover relatively minor losses or areas of thinness, some of the figures in the distance and the central sportsmen have been re-enforced, although this does appear slightly excessive. The scattered retouching in the centre of the skyline and clouds could be covering thinness or transparent effect of ageing of the paint layer, some of the craqulure pattern has also been covered, somewhat unnecessarily. There is a significant layer of discoloured varnish present which fluoresces strongly in ultra violet examination. The painting was examined in the frame.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The figures are, as Eisele noted, by Johannes Lingelbach, with whom Wynants frequently collaborated.  Wynants was not an italianate painter as such, and there is no evidence that he ever left The Netherlands, but the light tonality of large scale mature pictures such as this one hints at the different approach to landscape painting brought back to The Netherlands by the Bamboccianti, and practised by artists such as Wynants' fellow Haarlemer Philips Wouwerman, who undoubtedly influenced him.  Often, as here, the buildings in the distance are rather un-Dutch, and like those of Wouwerman, Wynants' landscapes often hint at foreign parts actually experienced by the painter, and thus composed, in the fore- and middle-ground at least, from native elements such as mossy deciduous trees, clumps of dock, and sandy dune-like soil.

This painting was painted a decade after Wynants had moved to Amsterdam, where he was to remain.  Wynants often placed rotting fallen trees and their stumps in the foreground, and frequently they are, as here, silver birches - a motif he might perhaps have observed in the paintings of the Dutch-Italianate Adam Pynacker.