Lucas van Uden Antwerp 1595 - 1672

The combination of fine hatching in pen and a decorative use of coloured washes of blue and yellow in the sky suggest that the traditional attribution to Van Uden is correct.  Two very similarly executed drawings were sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 6 November 2001, lot 32, and 7 July 1966, lot 44, the latter drawing originating from the celebrated 'Lanover Album' of early Flemish landscapes. 

It should, however, also be noted that the style is here a little less formal than in many of Van Uden's drawings, and reminiscent of a group of drawings generally attributed to Lodewijk de Vadder, in particular the view of The Abbey of Rouge-Cloître, sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 5 November 2002, lot 22, and a similarly drawn sheet in Munich, which bears an early attribution to De Vadder (see W. Wegner, Niderländische Handzeichnungen, 15-18 Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., Berlin 1973, cat. no. 974, reproduced plate 138).  The drawing styles of these various Flemish landscape artists of the first half of the 17th century do, however, remain in considerable need of authoritative clarification, but on the basis of our current understanding, the present drawing would seem to be the work of Lucas van Uden.