A wooded river landscape with cattle watering, a drover on a donkey, and a dog on a track

Jan Siberecht's early works were influenced by the Dutch Italianates, some of whose works he probably saw in Antwerp, rather than in Rome where they were active. He was a master in Antwerp in 1648/49, and is thought to have moved from there to England in 1672, where he remained till his death in c.1703. The artist had become acquainted with George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham in 1670 when the latter was travelling in the Southern Netherlands, and between 1672-3 Sieberechts worked at Buckingham's country house, Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, spending the next two decades travelling widely in England. The present work, dated 1684, is typical of his panoramic views of English river valleys, which Ellis Waterhouse describes as 'almost the beginnings of native landscape'. The influence of Sieberechts can be seen in the work of a later generation of British landscape painters, including George Lambert and the early works of Thomas Gainsborough.