Old Masters

Provenance:
Private Collection, UK.
Their sale; Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, Exeter, 21 Jan. 2014, lot 421 (as ‘Studio of De Vadder’, with no mention of the signature; unsold).
Private Collection, UK.

The landscape painter and etcher Lodewyk (or Lodevijk) de Vadder was made a master in the Brussels Guild of painters on 15 May 1628. De Vadder also painted tapestry cartoons, sometimes in collaboration with Jacob Jordaens. He regularly collaborated with David Teniers II and Gaspar de Crayer, who added staffage to his landscapes. Together with Jacques d’Arthois, De Vadder was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most significant representatives of the Brussels school of landscape painting, known collectively as ‘The Sonian Forest Painters’. De Vadder etched some 20 of his own compositions, which were also engraved for distribution by Wenceslaus Hollar. Active in the decades before the widespread popularity of plein-air painting, de Vadder drew his inspiration from the wooded countryside surrounding Brussels. In manner, he was influenced by the vivid colouring and rich brushwork of Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Adriaen Brouwer.