Maerten Ryckaert Antwerp 1587 - 1633

We are grateful to Drs. Luuk Pijl for his assistance in cataloguing this lot. Drs. Pijl points out that this painting relates to a work by Paul Bril, dated 1619, formerly in the collection of Paul Ganz, Basel, and later sold in New York, Sotheby’s, 2 June 1989, lot 3. Drs. Pijl will publish the present painting as being by Ryckaert in his catalogue raisonné on the works of Paul Bril.

This is not the only instance in which Ryckaert uses a Bril composition as the source of inspiration for his own paintings, particularly during the 1620s when Bril's pictures were being shipped back to Antwerp. On this particular occasion, Bril's ex-Ganz painting serves as the basis for three known variants by Ryckaert: the present picture; another with Galleria Lampronti, Rome, 1990; and a third offered for sale in Lyon, Loïk Conan/Marie-France Auclair, 6-7 December 1995. Bril's picture contains some of the same landscape elements as in the present work; in particular the rock formation at the right side of the composition, the waterfall and some of the trees. There are no figures present in the ex-Ganz painting and Ryckaert has replaced the deer and other animals with nymphs and satyrs.

This is very probably the painting recorded in Willem van Haecht's celebrated depiction of The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest , painted in 1628 and today in the Rubenshuis, Antwerp (see Fig. 1). The wealthy Antwerp merchant Cornelis van der Geest (1575?-1638) was one of the foremost collectors and patrons of his day, whose collection was housed in his townhouse on the river Scheldt in Antwerp. The imaginary scene records the visits of various dignitaries, including the  Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella, co-regents of the Spanish Low Countries, and the painters Rubens and Van Dyck. The painting faithfully records the contents of Van der Geest’s collection, from copies after antique sculpture to 17th-century Flemish paintings. A number of works on display have been identified: for example Jan van Eyck’s lost Lady at her Toilet (or a replica) and pictures by Rubens, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and Quentin Metsys. Van der Geest died unmarried and his collection was dispersed and sold in 1638.