Roelant Roghman

With Central Picture Galleries, New York;
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.;
By whose estate sold ("The Estate of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr."), New York, Sotheby's, 1 June 1989, lot 40 (as by Lucas Achtschellinck);
There purchased by the present owner. 

Rembrandt's pupil Roelant Roghman specialized in large scale imaginary landscapes like this one.  His subject matter is markedly different from most Dutch Golden Age landscape painters, and most probably owes its origins to the earlier Flemish tradition of fantasy landscapes, and perhaps to Hercules Seghers's painted and printed landscapes.  He was, however, the nephew of Roelant Savery, and was probably named after him, and he may also have drawn inspiration from Savery's mountainous landscapes, or indeed from his naer het leven drawings made in the Tyrol.  On the other hand, Roghman's muted color scheme and richly loaded brush surely reflect the influence of his teacher, Rembrandt.  Roghman's landscapes are strongly atmospheric, and here he achieves a sense of the splendor of nature by building up rich red-orange tones in the foreground, contrasted with the blue tinge in the distance.