Attributed to Adriaen van de Velde

Essay:

Adriaen van de Velde was the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder and younger brother of the marine artist Willem the Younger. Many different influences helped to shape his work, but none completely dominated it. He was a pupil of Jan Wynants and must certainly have studied the work of Paulus Potter who spent the last two years of his life in Amsterdam from 1652 to 1654, and whose influence is apparent in many of his animal compositions. His drawing is slightly less exact that Potter's, his outlines being more blurred by the gradations of colour, and in this respect he may also have seen the work of Karel Dujardin.

It is not known whether Adriaen van de Velde definitely travelled to Italy, but his well wooded landscapes with cattle of that warm and sunny country, or the more sparkling and atmospheric ones of his native Holland are the most celebrated aspect of his work.

He often painted incidental figures in the landcapes of fellow artists such as Meindart Hobbema, Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan van der Heyden.

Provenance:

Private Collection, UK