Roelant Savery
Mountain Landscape with Deer and a Stork by a Waterfall
Oil on panel. 38 x 49 cm.
Signed lower right: R. SAVERY FE.
The present work depicts a rocky landscape with deer, goats and birds gathered to drink from a small pond. In the lower right we see a stork hunting with outstretched wings, whilst its young wait behind it for their meal. The full, but balanced, composition is characterised by a skilful use of light. Rays from the sun illuminate the plateau with the grazing animals, water, and rocks from the left, which forms a stark contrast between this bright area in the centre and the dark forests that surround it.
The dating of this piece has been heavily debated. Whilst Müllenmeister places the work around 1608, Ekkehard Mai suggests a later origin in his exhibition catalogue. The fine and detailed brushwork, rocky wooded landscape, and lack of exotic animals would speak for a date of around 1608/1610. Savery resided in Prague from 1604 to 1614, and from here undertook lengthy sojourns through Bohemia and the Tyrol, which undoubtedly provided him with inspiration for his landscape works.
Provenance
Rochlitz Collection, Füssen. - Private ownership, Rhineland.
Literature
K. J. Müllenmeister: Roelant Savery. Die Gemälde mit Kritischem Oevrekatalog, Freren 1988, p. 226, no. 72. Colour illus. 12.
Exhibitions
Roelant Savery in seiner Zeit, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Cologne 1985. - Centraal Museum Utrecht 1885/86, cat. no. 10, illus. p. 70.