Lot 1070 Dα

With a later monogramm: PC.

While H.-U. Beck believes Jacob van der Croos to be the cousin of Anthony Jansz van der Croos, R.E.O. Ekkart is of the opinion that he is his son. However, it is certain that he was the father of Jan Jacobsz van der Croos. Jacob van der Croos in fact worked in Amsterdam and Alkmaar, perhaps in The Hague and Middelburg as well. In 1654, he married Catharina Laurens, probably a painter herself.
The unproven facts in Jacob van der Croos' biography are in contrast to the oeuvre being closely related to the works of his father/cousin Anthony Jansz. Besides views of single buildings in forestal areas or strips, there are mostly landscapes with distant vistas offering a view to a town silhouette in the background, as in our painting to that of Leiden. Characteristic for Jacob is the regular application of wide horizontal brushstrokes at the tree trunks, rising from the bottom into the fan­shaped foliage painted with hook-like brushstrokes. Another focal point is the rare number of staffage figures with the exception of the popular sack porter, also visible in our painting. Apparent is finally, as stated by Hans-Ulrich Beck, the "almost exact same size of most of his paintings with approx. 47 x 66 cm" (cf.: Künstler um Jan van Goyen, Doornspijk 1991, p. 111).
The monogram PC added later could possibly mistakenly refer to the monogrammist PC, identified as Pieter Cosin whose style of painting closely resembles that of the Croos family.