A Banquet before an Arbour with elegant Company eating and merrrymaking, after David Vinckboons

As George Keyes noted (loc.cit.), the drawing documents Esaias van de Velde's early interest in David Vinckboons. Apart from the engravings by Gillis van Breen (Keyes, op.cit., nos. A87-8) after Esaias, the present lot is the only known work from his early years in Amsterdam, giving an insight into his artistic sources. Esaias is still working in the tradition of several Flemish artists of the time, and there is little to indicate his future development as a landscape painter. The word 'stuxken' (or 'piece') in Esaias' inscription, while ambiguous, probably refers to a painting by David Vinckboons. Though many comparable pictures by the latter have survived, mostly of 1605-10, the prototype for this drawing is unknown. Van Gelder op.cit., note 4) described the inscription as that of Claes Jansz. Visscher. Vinckboons' drawing of The Prodigal Son in the British Museum, London (W. Wegner, H. Pee, Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, 31, Munich, 1980, p. 35 ff., no. 39b, illustrated) is most comparable in subject, handling and technique.