Esaias van de Velde Amsterdam 1587 - 1630 The Hague

Anonymous sale, Cologne, Schüller, 3 December 1919, lot 521 (as dated 1619);
Gustave Gerstenberger, Chemnitz, 1926;
Henry Janssen, New Jersey;
By descent to Helen Janssen Wetzel, New Jersey;
Her sale, New York, Sotheby's, 9 October 1980, lot 17 (as dated 1611);
Sale, New York, Sotheby's, 28 May 1999, lot 38 (sold for $ 50.000).

G.S. Keyes, Esaias van den Velde, 1587-1630, Doornspijk 1984,  p. 155, cat. no. 132, reproduced plate 85 (as signed E Welde).

ENGRAVED
In reverse, and with different staffage, by Jan van de Velde II (1593-1641), who was Esaias' nephew. Keyes points out that, although the print is undated, the fact that Jan would have had access to the painting suggests that it was most likely produced while Esaias was still in Haarlem, which he left for The Hague in 1618.

According to Keyes (see Literature below), the present work stylistically resembles works by Van de Velde such as Riders on a path in the woods, dated 1619, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon (ibid., p. 150, cat. no. 110, reproduced plate 82), a River landscape with ferry, dated 1616 (ibid., pp. 152-3, cat. no. 122, reproduced plate 81), and Banquet in a park, dated 1615, (ibid., p. 137, cat. no. 66, reproduced plate 135 and colourplate V). He notes that the costumes in the present painting are of a type that appear in Esaias' works shortly before 1620. The church could possibly be identified as that of the town of Spaarnwoude, which Van de Velde depicted in two etchings (ibid., pp. 321-2, cat. no. E 12, reproduced figs. 54A and 54B).