Follower of Hendrick Avercamp

Baron August Janssen;
His sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 4 November 1919, lot 3.

Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, Tercantenaire de Rembrandt, 10 July- 15 September 1906, cat. no.1, reproduced;
Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker, 14 December 1919 – 4 January 1920, cat. 14, no. 2;
Utrecht, Voor de kunst, February- March 1922;
St. Louis, City Art Museum, J. Goudstikker, Dutch Pictures, 1922, cat. no. 3;
New York, Jacques Goudstikker, Dutch and Flemish pictures, March – April 1923.

C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp en Barent Avercamp, Doornspijk 1979, p. 204, no. S11 (as Hendrick Avercamp).

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is cradled. There is a consolidated and repaired horizontal split in the upper section of the sky, this is unstable and there is insecure paint along it and old restoration. There is restored paint loss to the edges and a scattering of minor restorations across the surface. Some of the figures, tree branches and more vulnerable details, such as the rigging, are abraded and augmented. Many areas of the painting are in good preserved condition. The varnish is slightly discoloured, its removal would enhance the tonality. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame with some damages."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The composition follows that of Avercamp's original, last recorded with P. Graupe, Paris, in 1939. When Clara Welcker included this painting in her seminal monograph on Avercamp she presumably only knew it from an old photograph. There are further copies of the lost original, for example Welcker no. 256, which was with Jacques Goudstikker in 1932.