Adriaen van Stalbemt

K. Andrews, "A Pseudo-Elsheimer group: Adriaen van Stalbemt as figure painter", in The Burlington Magazine, May 1973, p. 301, reproduced p. 303, fig. 46 (as whereabouts unknown).   

Copper plate is flat. Overall in good condition. There has been a varnish applied to the paint surface which appears to cover some older retouches. There appear to be some retouches along the tail and backside of the horse, as well as in its right leg. A small, but newer retouch is applied to the head and nose of the figure at far right. Some small scattered retouches are also visible under UV around the figure group in the right background. Overall through the picture presents a strong image. There is very nice detailing in the bearded figures at right, as well as in the female at center. In a carved and painted wooden frame.
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This painting is part of a group of five pictures which were the object of an article by Keith Andrews (see Literature) in which he reattributes them to Stalbemt. Almost all of these works were formerly ascribed to Adam Elsheimer as they show similarities, particularly in the compositions, with works by that German master.

None of these paintings are signed, but the key to reattributing this group lies with a picture on copper representing Paul and Barnabas at Lystra in the Städel, Frankfurt. Indeed, even though this painting carries an old 'von Adam Eltzheimer' incription on the back, its provenance can be traced back to 1752, to the collection of Willem Lorimer in The Hague, where it was under the name of 'Stalbend' . This must refer to Adriaen van Stalbemt, an artist that was hardly ever mentioned in the accounts of Flemish painting around the turn of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Further evidence for this reattribution can be found in a painting in the Prado, Madrid representing the Triumph of David. This picture is signed by both Pieter Brueghel the Younger who did the landscape and Adriaen van Stalbemt who painted the figures. The figures in the Prado picture show compelling similarities with the figures in the present painting and other paintings of the group.

Today Stalbemt is mainly known for his Breughelian landscapes but the reattribution of these works demonstrates that he was a very skillful figure painter, and it is probable that in his own time he was known chiefly as such.