Gillis Neyts Ghent 1623 - 1687 Antwerp

H.R.H. Prince Alexander, Marquess of Carisbrooke, G.C.B. G.C.H.O. (1886 - 1960);
His deceased sale (sold by Order of the Executors), London, Sotheby’s, 19 October 1960, lot 141, for £300 to Goodall;
With Edward Speelman, London;
From whom acquired by the late father of the present owners in 1963.

Only a small number of painted landscapes by Gillis Neyts exist. He is better known as a draughtsman, his drawings, usually on a small scale and often on vellum, reflecting both topographical and imaginary landscapes of the southern Netherlands, a large corpus of which are today in the British Museum.

This painting, dated 1676, reflects the landscape tradition established in Antwerp by Jan Brueghel the Elder during the first two decades of the 17th century, where Neyts entered into the Guild of St. Luke in 1647, and paintings such as these must have been produced to satisfy a continued demand for this genre that lasted well into the 18th century.

The light tonality and the idiosyncratic, fine brushwork, including the stippled treatment of the clouds, are entirely characteristic of Neyts' output. The staffage is clearly inspired by the work of Philips Wouwerman (see lot 8 in this sale) and the motif of the hunter shooting duck on a pond in the lower left corner recurs in a painting by Neyts sold New York, Sotheby's, 16 May 1996, lot 134. Round towers with conical roofs, such as the one prominently depicted in this picture, occur in other paintings by the artist and many of his drawings.