Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter
Mountainous Landscape with the Conversion of Paul
Oil on canvas (relined). 43.5 x 71 cm.
Gillis van Valckenborch was born into a famous family of artists. Fourteen renowned painters are recorded in their family history. Of these, Gillis van Valckenborch's father Marten (1535-1612), his brother Frederik van Valkenborch and his uncle Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder achieved the highest renown as painters. Gillis spent most of his career in Germany. Unlike the other painters in the family, he is best known for his large and densely populated compositions depicting scenes from ancient history or mythology. While a large number of landscape drawings attest to his interest in this pictorial genre as well, only a few landscape paintings have been attributed to him. The present work belongs to this smaller group within the artist's oeuvre, which Alexander Wied has attributed based on a compositionally similar "Conversion of Paul" from the Museé Bossuet in Meaux (Wied, op. cit., p. 193).
Provenance
Art dealer Schlichte Bergen, Amsterdam 1978 - 1980 Dutch private collection. - Auction P. Glerum, Amsterdam 9.11.1998, lot 15 (as Frederik van Valckenborch. - Dutch private collection.
Literature
A. Wied: Frederik und Gillis van Valckenborch, Vienna 2016, p. 194, no. G34 , illustration.