Oil painting, 'Landscape with Stag Hunt', attributed to Gillis Rombouts

A wooded landscape dominated by tall oak trees gives way to a meandering path along which hunters on horseback and their dogs pursue a stag. The attribution of this painting to Gillis Rombouts was confirmed, based on photographs only, by Marijke de Kinkelder (verbal communication) in February 2010. Gillis Rombouts (1630-1672) was a Dutch painter of the Haarlem School who primarily painted genre scenes and landscapes. He appears to have been particularly influenced by Jacob van Ruisdael, regarded as the principal figure among Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th century, who worked both in Haarlem and Amsterdam. Ruisdael's naturalistic compositions, style of representing massive forms and his colour range constituted a new direction away from the ‘tonal phase’ (ca. 1620–ca. 1650) associated with the previous generation of landscape painters. This work fits very well with Rombouts painting style in technique, subject and composition, a close comparison can be made with a work by Rombouts documented in the collection of S. Lunding, Amsterdam, in 1964 (repr. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie)

Bequeathed by John M. Parsons

Bequeathed by John M. Parsons, 1870

Historical significance: The attribution of this painting to Gillis Rombouts was confirmed, based on photographs only, by Marijke de Kinkelder (verbal communication) in February 2010. Gillis Rombouts (1630-1672) was a Dutch painter of the Haarlem School who primarily painted genre scenes and landscapes. He appears to have been particularly influenced by Jacob van Ruisdael, regarded as the principal figure among Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th century, who worked both in Haarlem and Amsterdam. Ruisdael's naturalistic compositions, style of representing massive forms and his colour range constituted a new direction away from the ‘tonal phase’ (ca. 1620–ca. 1650) associated with the previous generation of landscape painters. This work fits very well with Rombouts painting style in technique, subject and composition, a close comparison can be made with a work by Rombouts documented in the collection of S. Lunding, Amsterdam, in 1964 (96.5 x 124.5 cm, oil on oak).

Landscape paintings were extremely popular during the 17th century and increasingly encompassed a variety of forms and genres. In the early 1600s, innovative contributions to landscape paintings were made, especially in representing effects of light and their change due to atmospheric conditions. Panoramic views also became popular in the 17th-century Netherlands and views of the Dutch countryside developed under the influence of Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) who worked in a broken brushwork technique and used a restrained monochromatic palette of earthy colours. By the end of the 17th a shift in taste is detectable in which more academic and classical landscapes were favoured.

The attribution of this painting, based on photographs only, to Gillis Rombouts has recently been upheld by Marijke de Kinkelder (verbal communication) in February 2010. Formerly called Jacob van Ruisdael (1893) it was later described as by one of Ruisdael's followers in Haarlem, of whom, in the opinion of Neil MacLaren (oral opinion, 1960), Gillis Rombouts is the most likely.

A wooded landscape dominated by tall oak trees gives way to a meandering path along which hunters on horseback and their dogs pursue a stag.

520-1870