Adam Pynacker

Renaud-César-Louis de Choiseul, 2^nd Duc de Praslin (1735-1791);
His estate sale, Paris, Paillet, 18 February 1793, lot 118, for 1,250 FF. to Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun;
Probably Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper (1778-1837), at Panshanger, Hertfordshire; 
By descent to Francis Thomas De Grey Cowper, 7^th Earl Cowper and 7th Baron Lucas (1834-1905), at Panshanger, Hertfordshire (Panshanger List, 1857, MSS II, p. 17, "small dining room," no. 7);
By descent to his widow Katrine Cecilia Compton Cowper, Countess Cowper (1845-1913);
By inheritance to Ethel, Lady Desborough (1867-1952), grand-daughter of the 6th Earl;
By descent to her daughter Monica, the Hon. Lady Salmond (1893-1978), in 1953;
By descent to her daughter Rosemary, Lady Ravensdale, 1973;
By descent to her son The Hon. Robert Mosley;
His sale, London, Christie's, 24 April 1998, lot 23;
Anonymous Sale, London, Sotheby's, 5 December 2007, lot 44.

On loan from Rosemary, Lady Ravensdale to Dodington House, Gloucestershire, until the mid-1980s and subsequently at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works..., London 1829-42, vol.VI, London, 1835, p. 291, no. 14 (as on panel, composition described in reverse, with incorrect measurements);
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. IV, London 1857, p. 346 (as on panel);
C. Hofstede de Groot, Verzeichnis der Werke..., vol IX, Esslingen/ Paris, 1926, p. 537, no. 64 (as on panel, with incorrect measurements);
H.G. Belsey, The Cowper Collection, unpublished dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1982;
L.B. Harwood, Adam Pynacker, Doornspijk 1988, pp. 64-65, no. 36, reproduced plate 36 (as canvas laid on cradled panel, and as unsigned).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored. The canvas has been lined with glue as an adhesive. The varnish has become slightly soft but could easily be refreshed. There are small scattered retouches in the sky but in the darker colors of the landscape and foreground there are hardly any restorations, and clearly the painting is in lovely condition.
"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."

In her catalogue raisonné on the artist, Dr. Laurie Harwood notes that the left side of this painting corresponds with that in an upright painting of a Stony creek in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,¹ and that of a Landscape with Waterfall and Shepherd from 1654 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.²  Following the date of the Berlin Landscape, this painting can also be dated around 1654, when the artist was living in his home town of Schiedam near Rotterdam and some years after his return from Italy in circa 1648.

The artist used the entire composition again, with some differences and as part of a pair, in a Landscape with Waterfall in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (inv. no. 787), datable to around 1670.³

1.  Inv. no. NM 575; see Harwood, under Literature, pp. 63-64, cat. nos. 34 and 35, reproduced plate 34.
2.  Inv. no. 897; see Harwood, op. cit., plate 35.
3.  Idem, p. 103, cat. no. 91, reproduced plate 91.