This characteristically energetic landscape is very similar in style to four drawings of wooded landscapes by Goudt in Braunschweig, and was probably made at around the same time. Like most of Goudt's drawings, they were formerly given to Elsheimer, of whom Goudt was both pupil and patron. Distinguished by a personal combination of angular, hatched shading and swirling, calligraphic outlines, Goudt's approach to vegetation is both idiosyncratic and appealing. A little over a dozen landscapes of this type by the artist are known, of which only this and one other remain in private hands.
2
1. H. Möhle, Die Zeichnungen Adam Elsheimers, Berlin 1966, pls. 40-41, nos. G101-104
2. Ibid., nos. G101-115. The other sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 8 November 2000, lot 17