An extensive landscape with a cavalry skirmish, a ruined castle on a hilltop beyond

Born in Germany to a Huguenot family, Frederick de Moucheron moved at a young age to Amsterdam, where, according to his biographer Arnold Houbraken, he studied with Jan Asselijn. Although he apparently never visited Italy, Moucheron produced works influenced by the second generation of Dutch Italianates such as Asselijn and Jan Both, as well as Philips Wouwerman, whose battle scenes likely served as an inspiration for the present work. Moucheron favored a light palette and muted tonality - seen in the the present work's sun-bleached hills and pale blue sky [of the Italian campagna] - which lent a decorative appearance to his works, many of which were installed in ornamental schemes (see Dulwich 2002, loc. cit).

During the second half of the 20th century, this work belonged to William and Frances Haussner, whose storied Baltimore restaurant, Haussner's, was home to a large art collection.