Property from a Belgian Private Collection
Théobald Michau
A river landscape with villagers unloading their boats by the shore
Lot Closed
December 7, 10:29 AM GMT
Estimate
26,000 - 35,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Belgian Private Collection
Théobald Michau
Tournai 1676–1765 Antwerp
A river landscape with villagers unloading their boats by the shore
signed lower right: T. Michau
oil on panel
unframed: 37.2 x 59.7 cm.; 15⅝ x 23½ in.
framed: 56.7 x 78.8 cm.; 22⅜ x 31 in.
Marquis de Courtebonne;
His sale, Antwerp, Delehaye et Nicolié, 30 and 31 March 1880, lot 76;
A. Pinson;
His sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, 22 June 1946, lot 63;
Anonymous sale, Brussels, Servaerts, 12–13 November 2002, lot 461;
With De Jonckeere Gallery;
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.
Apprenticed in Brussels to the landscape painter Lucas Achtschellinck (1626–1699), Théobald Michau was made Master of the Guild there in 1698 and was elected a member of the Guild of Antwerp in 1710. This scene is painted with all the minute attention to detail and brilliant colouring characteristic of Michau's style. Although executed more than a century later, his works still show a conspicuous debt to the designs of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Jan Breughel the Younger (1601–1678), whose river landscape compositions, evidently inspired this work.