ROELANDT SAVERY | Landscape with swans near a waterfall

Comtesse Cavers, before 1923;
From whom purchased by Galerie J. & A. Le Roy Frères, Brussels, 1923;
Jules and Jean Lalière, Namur, by 1967, inv. no. 33;
With De Jonckheere, Paris, by 1996;
From whom acquired by present collector, May 1996.

K.J. Müllenmeister, Roelant Savery: Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1988, p. 263, no. 143A (taken with reservation due to insufficient photos and information).

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 on an oak panel shows no reinforcements. The paint layer is probably clean. It has been varnished and retouched. The retouches are mainly confined to the lighter colors in the swans and sky, addressing thin horizontal lines associated with the wood grain of the panel. The darker colors seem to be healthy. The condition is very good overall, and the work should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Renowned landscape and animal painter Roelandt Savery earned the attention of Emperor Rudolf II and worked for his court in Prague between 1603-1613, where he studied Rudolf's menagerie and hunting grounds. The Emperor also sent Savery on an expedition to Tyrol in 1606-07, where the artist studied mountains and waterfalls that inspired later paintings, including the present. Despite the naturalistic details inspired by Savery's observations of real birds and landscape elements, this composition is almost certainly imagined. The active, Mannerist composition and inclusion of exotic flora and fauna appealed to Savery's courtly patrons in Prague as well as to his Dutch contemporaries. Swans appear in several of Savery's works, although groupings of exotic birds form many species, presented as if coexisting peacefully in a bird's paradise, are better known.¹ This painting depicts a more realistic view of swans gathered around their nest, squabbling and grooming, with two ducks approaching to drink from the stream, and a crane diving toward the nest. Savery has evoked the noise and movement of the birds jostling with their open mouths and the stray feathers floating into the air and onto the surface of the water.

1. See for example: Landscape with birds, 1628, Kunsthistorisches Museum Gemäldegalerie, Vienna, inv. no. 1082.