Adriaen van de Velde

Jan Tak, Leiden;
His deceased sale, Soeterwoede near Leiden, 5 September 1781, lot 13, for 740 Florins;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Van den Schley/Roos, 11 July 1798, lot 101 (as said to be on panel), according to Hofstede de Groot;
James Akers;
His sale, London, Stanley, 21-22 April 1815, for 100 Guineas;
Marquess of Blandford sale, London, 1820, for 86 Guineas, according to Hofstede de Groot;
Christian William Huybens;
His bankruptcy sale, London, Stanley, 26-27 March 1822, for 105 Guineas:
James Smith (1768-1843), Ashlyns Park, Hertfordshire, by 1834;
Thence by descent until sold, anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, 7 July 2005, lot 131, and acquired shortly afterwards by the present owner.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. V, London 1834, pp. 186-7, no. 40;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. IV, London 1912, p. 538, no. 285.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint is secure but a little raised in places. There is some thinness to the paint in the foliage, which appears flat. Some discoloured restorations can be detected in the sky but are excessive. There is the remains of an old varnish in situ imparting a dullness and loss of saturation to the darker passages and the reduction of dark cracks to the chest of the herding girl. Overall, the painting is in a good untouched condition. Offered in a wood effect and gilt wood frame with some worm damage."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

It is only by contrast with his earlier Dutch landscapes that Van de Velde's later pictures such as this one may be termed 'Italianate'. Van de Velde probably never went to Italy, and it is only the distant round temple and the garb of the maid that are here overtly Italianate; the cool tones and lush vegetation do not speak of a Mediterranean climate. In his later years Van de Velde painted a number of pictures using a similar formula, in which a single prominent herding girl or youth is seen, flanked by their charges, seated on a grassy bank from across a small stream or pool, in which they are reflected. Usually a distant classical ruin announces that this is intended to be an Italianate subject. Of a painting formerly in the Cook collection, very similar to the present example, Wolfgang Stechow wrote eloquently thus: "While the distant ruins are painted in the tradition of Asselijn and even of Poelenburgh, the trees, with their somewhate cursory, feathery technique, betray their origin in his rather late period. Freed from the crust of varnish or dirt, which disfigure so many of van de Velde's late paintings, the colours of this one are again clear and display a fine harmony of brown, green and white against the blue, grey-white, light gold and rose-brown of the sky and ruins. Imitations and copies of such pictures are legion" (Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, London 1966, p. 162, reproduced fig. 329).

A copy after this composition was offered in Paris, Tajan, 27 June 2001, lot 76; that painting or another copy was sold in Cologne, Lempertz, 6 April 1940, lot 115, when described as signed and dated 1670.

We are grateful to Dr. Bart Cornelis for endorsing the attribution following first hand inspection.