Lot 583 | Jan Siberechts | Wide Landscape with a Cart Loaded with Stones

SIBERECHTS, JAN
1627 Antwerp - 1700 London

Title: Wide Landscape with a Cart Loaded with Stones.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 197 x 151cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower left: J. Siberechts 1697.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

In 16th-century Flanders and Brabant, landscape painting developed into its own pictorial genre, which was regarded as a Dutch characteristic and was held in high esteem far beyond the country's borders. While the southern Netherlands became politically and religiously influenced due to the Counter-Reformation and the consolidation of new state entities, a decidedly artistic scene developed in the Flemish centres of Antwerp and Brussels. Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Bruegel and Joachim Patinir, but also Herri met de Bles, Jan van Amstel, Cornelis Massys were decisive artists for the development of landscape painting in the 16th century and its development in the 17th century.
Jan Siberechts was born in Antwerp in 1627, the eldest son of the sculptor of the same name, and began his career as a master of the Guild of St Luke. His early works were influenced by Dutch landscape painters of the Italian style such as Nicolaes Berchem and Karel Dujardin. In the 1660s, he developed a very personal style of landscape painting, which focused on the Flemish landscape as well as country life. This brought him the attention of the Duke of Buckingham, who invited him to England. There Siberechts mainly fulfilled commissions for the English aristocracy, but without abandoning his passion for Flemish landscape painting.
This late work shows the diversity of Jan Siberechts ouvre. Among other things, the artist used people and animals to play with the visual effects created by the figures in water. At the same time Siberechts' painting follows a distinctive light concept. While silbery-greyish shimmering accents were used in the foreground to create shadowy effects, the background brings forth warm colours. This creates an incredible pictorial depth that invites the viewer to linger.