A drawing of the same bridge, in the same sense, is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (Schnackenburg, op.cit., no. 559, recto), which Schnackenburg attributes to Isack van Ostade. E. Bock and J. Rosenberg, Die Zeichnungen niederländischer Meister im Kupferstichkabinett zu Berlin, Berlin, 1930, p. 204, attributed the drawing to Adriaen. Trautscholdt confirmed this (Some remarks on drawings from the studio of and circle of the van Ostade brothers, Master Drawings, V, 1967, p. 162), also referring to the verso of the drawing, which is assumed to be a preliminary study for B.47 (see lot 44 in this sale). Slatkes (op.cit., pp. 232-5, figs. 5 and 7) confirms this. This etching is the only one by Ostade that may be classified as a landscape. Slatkes (Pelletier a.o., op.cit., pp. 149-50) compares the bridge depicted to that in a picture and a drawing by Jan van Goyen (H.- U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, Amsterdam, 1972, I, no. 634 and 1973, II, no. 443). However this relationship seems to be based mainly on the subject. Slatkes suggests a possible identification of the bridge with one at Heemstede, near Haarlem, comparing it to other views of this bridge. Jan van Goyen's drawing dated 1651 in the Groninger Museum voor Stad en Lande, Groningen (Beck, op.cit., 1972, no. 237, illustrated) and Pieter Molijn's drawing dated 1655 (C. van Hasselt, Dessins de Paysagistes Hollandais du XVIIe Siècle de la Collection particulière conservée à l'Institut Néerlandais de Paris, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1968-9, no. 103, plate 52) both show a comparable wooden bridge with anglers seen from the same angle as that in the impressions from this plate. However a secure identification of the bridge seems problematic. Schnackenburg dates this plate to circa 1647-52, while Slatkes dates it to circa 1647, which would make the subject a possible model for van Goyen and Molijn. This dating would also place it only two years after Rembrandt's etching of a wooden bridge with two figures on it dated 1645 (B.208), a possible inspiration for Ostade. Certainly this image seems to have been influential in the further development of landscape art in Holland. Constantijn Huygens' drawing of a similar wooden bridge dated 1651 was sold in these Rooms, 25 November 1992, lot 592.