A cavalry skirmish with a windmill on a hill beyond

Best known for his paintings of the campaigns of King Louis XIV of France, Van der Meulen began his career in Brussels, where in 1646 he had been apprenticed to Pieter Snayers, and in 1651 himself became a master in the painters' guild. Thereafter he remained in Brussels for the next thirteen years, before his departure for France in 1664. In the Netherlands, he painted small-scale cabinet pictures influenced by the work of such artists as Snayers and Sebastiaen Vrancx. The present picture is a characteristic work of that period, comparable to such paintings as the Cavalry Battle of 1653 in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, or the Landscape with a cavalry skirmish sold, Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2000, lot 110 (£25,800).