Lot Essay
This Danish painter was traditionally thought by Houbraken to have been a pupil of Rembrandt's. Whilst it is possible he trained in Holland, he was almost certainly also in Flanders, perhaps as a pupil of Jan Lievens, who was based in Antwerp from 1635. The Flemish influence in his oevure is particularly apparent in the present work, especially the influence of Anthony van Dyck's Rest on the Flight into Egypt, in the Alte Pinakotheck, Munich (see G. Schlüter-Göttsche, Jürgen Ovens, Holstein, 1978, plate 16).