Monogrammist J.D.

The actual painting is a little softer and less red in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The canvas has a stable relining. A horizontal canvas fold is slightly visible in the upper half of the painting. There are a few scattered paint losses in the lower centre and along the lower edge and there's a slight tendency towards flaking in these areas. The paint surface is under a very dirty and discoloured layer of varnish, but the paint layer is secure and wonderfully preserved. In particular the impasto and texture in the highlights. A few retouched paint losses are visible along the lower edge, and minor strengthening can be observed in the foliage lower right. Inspection under Ultra-Violet light is largely impeded by the dirty varnish layer, but does confirm the aforesaid and shows there's probably some strengthening in the trees on the right. Offered in a decorative carved wood and plaster gilt frame, in good condition. (MW)
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This wonderful landscape painting by a hitherto unknown hand clearly shows the influence of Dutch Italianate landscape painters such as Jan Both (1618/22-1652) and Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683). The admiration for the work of the second generation Dutch Italianates continued well into the 18th Century and extended beyond the boundaries of their native country. Especially in Germany landscape painters continued to work in the tradition established by their Dutch predecessors, often combined with a more international, French orientated taste for idealisation and monumentality.

The rapid, but accurately applied brushstrokes, and the sophisticated lighting reveals a very gifted painter, who was probably active in Germany. The landscape recalls the early mountain paintings from around 1700 by Joachim Franz Beich (1665-1748).¹ His influence is also visible in the figures of Tobias and the Angel.²


1. See W. Meighörner et.al., Barocke Weltenbilder : Franz Joachim Beich : Hofmaler des bayerischen Kurfürsten Max Emanuel, exhibition catalogue, Friedrichshafen 1998, p. 199, cat. no. 8, reproduced p. 133, fig. 130.
2. Meighörner et.al., op. cit., p.202, cat. no. 44, reproduced p. 146, fig. 147.