A river landscape with a ferry boat, a church in the distance

This imagined view of a village derives from a now lost composition by Jan Brueghel the Elder, which known to us today through versions by his son Jan Brueghel the Younger. One such example is now in the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Liepzig (inv. no. 309). Here Ryckaert expands upon the Brueghel composition, dotting the landscape with birds, and including an allusion to the Holy Family in the ferry boat.

We are grateful to Dr. Luuk Pijl for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs, and for suggesting a date of c. 1615 (private communication 16 February 2024).