Bandits around a fire on a river bank beneath a city fortification at night

The present lot belongs to a group of night scenes by the artist, executed in the early 1640s, influenced by Adam Elsheimer and Rembrandt van Rijn, a similar influence had already been experienced by his fellow townsmen Adriaen and Isaac van Ostade. Related to the present lot is the Boors by a slaughtered pig, signed and dated 1644, in the Mauritshuis (I.Q. van Regteren Altena, 'Cornelis Symonsz. van der Schalcke', Oud Holland, 1926, p.12, fig.2; H.U.Beck, Künstler um Jan van Goyen , 1992, p.383, n^.1070 A3, with ill.) and the picture of an almost identical composition in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Dijon, inv.n^.J13 (photograph in the RKD).