The present lot is to be compared with the picture in the Bayerische Staatsgemälde Sammlungen, Munich, also from 1651 (Schulz, Herman Saftleven, 1982, no. 67, fig. 22). As pointed out by by J. Nieuwstraten, De Ontwikkeling van Herman Saftlevens Kunst tot 1650, in Nederlandsch Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XVI, 1965, pp. 81/117, in both pictures Saftleven grasps back to the influences, which he underwent in the forties, mainly Jan Both and Alexander Keirinckx. Characteristic is the group of trees in the centre of the composition, which is also shown in a drawing in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (W. Schulz, op.cit., fig. 135).

To be included in the forthcoming second edition of W. Schulz' catalogue raisonné on the artist's work, no. 70 B

See colour illustration