EMANUEL MURANT | VILLAGE LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES BESIDE A RIVER, A TREE SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE SKY

Little is known of Emanuel Murant’s life, though the Dutch biographer Arnold Houbraken states that he was a pupil of Philips Wouwerman in Haarlem, and it is also thought that he knew Jan van der Heyden and Jan van de Cappelle. Murant specialised in village scenes and ruined farm buildings, executed with minute accuracy - a trait that may have developed through friendship with Van der Heyden. Indeed, Houbraken writes that one can 'count the stones of the masonry' ('dat men de steenen van 't muurwerk konde tellen') in Murant's paintings - certainly true of the building in the present work, which rewards close scrutiny. The composition of this painting is particularly striking in the stark silhouette of the tree, right, meaning that the impact of this image is as powerful from afar as it is close to. 

Another painting in the SØR Rusche Collection, to be offered in September, forms a panoramic river landscape together with this work.