Attributed to Jan van de Velde II Rotterdam or Delft circa 1593 - 1641 Enkhuizen

Somewhat foxed overall. Thin area in top right corner. Some light wrinkles in paper, left edge. Ink rather sunk throughout, but composition still legible. Sold in a modern wooden frame.
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It is easy to understand why this drawing has previously been associated both with the early pen drawings of Van Goyen, and with the name of that other interesting pioneer of Dutch landscape drawing, Jan van Brosterhuysen.  Yet the most striking parallels are in fact with the drawings produced by Esaias and Jan van de Velde, in the second decade of the 17^th century.  In particular, the handling in details such as the trees and leaves, and the overall compositional type, with dense foliage contrasted with an open distant view, is very close to certain drawings of roughly the same size by Jan van de Velde, such as the Landscape with Ruins by a Small River, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.¹  There are also similarities with another rather later (circa 1630) drawing by Van de Velde in the Rijksmuseum, the Road between two large Groups of Trees², which, though broader and freer in the treatment of foliage and incorporating colour, is very comparable to the present work in the rendering of the animals and the distant view.

1. P. Schatborn & M. Schapelhouman, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Artists born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., Amsterdam 1998, no. 341, reproduced vol. II, p. 178

2. Schatborn & Schapelhouman, op. cit., no. 343