Herman Saftleven Rotterdam 1609 - 1685 Utrecht

From the early 1650's onwards, Herman Saftleven traveled extensively in the Rhine valley.  He recorded his journeys in numerous drawings, which served as the inspiration for the many paintings, finished drawings and prints of Rhenish landscapes that he produced in the last three decades of his life.

This picture is characteristic of these idealized, topographically correct, hilly and rocky landscapes. The river scenery of the present lot displays the higher degree of fantasy and more colorful palette of Saftleven's work from the 1680's.

The present painting will be included in the forthcoming second edition of the catalogue raisonné on Herman Saftleven's work, currently in preparation by Dr. Wolfgang Schulz.