Peasants ambushed on a country road

The artist repeated the composition with slight differences in the picture of 1623 in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig (Keyes, op.cit., no.45, plate 285). As pointed out by Keyes, op.cit., p.109, the subject of ambushes and of battles was taken up by the artist only from 1618, after his move from Haarlem to The Hague. They reflect an awareness of the approaching end of the Twelve Years Truce in 1621.
See colour illustration