ABRAHAM DANIELSZ. HONDIUS | A wooded landscape with a fisherman and a falconer

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has not been restored for many years, but it is in beautiful condition. The lining is old and could be adjusted or changed to address some raised cracking in the paint layer. In the distant landscape, near the center of the picture, very slight weakness has developed in the hill near the building on the peak. The painting will clean beautifully. There is no question that this is a well-preserved work.
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Abraham Danielsz. Hondius was a Dutch Golden Age artist who was born in Rotterdam and is thought to have trained under Pieter de Bloot and Cornelis Saftleven.  In 1659, he moved to Amsterdam where he possibly completed this impressive landscape.  It was also here that he likely became acquainted with the work of Adam Pynacker, a masterful painter of sunlight and Italianate landscapes who was active in Amsterdam in the first few years of the 1660s.  Echoes of Pynacker’s style are found throughout the present composition, particularly in the mountains and in the figure of the standing man and dog in the left foreground.   Although the overall consensus is that this painting was completed by Hondius alone and likely inspired by the work of Pynacker, it has also been suggested that it could be an example of a rare collaboration between the two artists.