The attribution was originally made by Edward Speelman and endorsed by Gerson, who dated the present picture to Lievens' Antwerp period (according to a note in the R.K.D., The Hague; see also the Brunswick exhibition catalogue, op. cit., p. 128, note 1). More recently, Professor Sumowski dated the picture to circa 1640 (W. Sumowski, loc. cit.)

The composition is typical of Lievens' work, with its cluster of trees and horizontal spatial organisation, and may be compared to two evening landscapes: one in the Institut Néerlandais, Paris, the other in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (Brunswick exhibition catalogue, op. cit., pp. 122-5, nos. 41-2, illustrated).

The group of three large willows recall several tree studies by Lievens, in particular a drawing in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, and a sheet in the Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (Brunswick exhibition catalogue, op. cit., p. 187, no. 90; and H. Schneider, Jan Lievens, Amsterdam, 1973, p. 231, no. Z295). Contrary to usual practice, however, the foliage of the willows is treated with broad brushstrokes, at odds with Lievens' more habitual precise manner. It appears that this is evidence of the artist attempting a new technique, to convey more accurately the character of the willows' distinctive foliage; this is also found in a similar landscape in the de Boer collection, Amsterdam (Brunswick exhibition catalogue, op. cit., pp. 130-1, no. 45, illustrated).