Lot Essay
The most important influence upon Valckenborch's early work was Hans Bol who, like Valckenborch, joined the guild in his native town, Mechelen, in 1560. Bol's series of landscape prints published by Cock in 1562 includes several views of river valleys, imaginary images consistent with the main current of Flemish landscape painting, whose chief practitioners prior to 1600 included Joachim Patenir, Herri met de Bles and Pieter Brueghel I. Valckenborch adhered closely to this native tradition though he worked mostly outside the Southern Netherlands. In 1566 the wars with Spain drove him from Mechelen to Lige and then to Aachen. By the time he settled in Antwerp in 1575 his style was fully formed. The present work typifies Lucas van Valckenborch's approach to landscape with unruly rock formations and a maze of trees and waterways, where nature is tamed by the endeavors of man. The compositional scheme with a coulisse of land tumbling from the left down to a broad river with small islands and a distant town was used by him with little variation until the end of his career.
Valckenborch's oeuvre includes a number of paintings depicting iron foundaries on the banks of the river, possibly the Maas, near Lige where iron smelting took place from the Middle-Ages until the early 20th century.
On stylistic grounds the present work can be dated to the 1590s when Valckenborch had established a busy studio in Frankfurt-am-Main which he ran until his death in 1597.
Valckenborch's oeuvre includes a number of paintings depicting iron foundaries on the banks of the river, possibly the Maas, near Lige where iron smelting took place from the Middle-Ages until the early 20th century.
On stylistic grounds the present work can be dated to the 1590s when Valckenborch had established a busy studio in Frankfurt-am-Main which he ran until his death in 1597.