Jan Wijnants

J. Rendorp, Amsterdam, 16 October 1793, lot 69, to Spaan;
H. Muilman, Amsterdam, 12 April 1813, lot 188;
G. van der Voort, Amsterdam, 13 March 1877, lot 39, to Vischer;
Jansen and Altmann, Amsterdam, 3 March 1891, lot 126;
With J. & S. Goldschmidt, Frankfurt, 1929 to Helen Janssen Wetzel;
By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's Parke Bernet,  9 October 1980, lot 9, to David Koester Gallery;
Sale ("Property of a European Private Collector"), New York, Sotheby's, 14 January 1988, lot 113;
There purchased by Bernard Palitz.  

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1927, vol. VIII, pp. 442-443, cat. no. 59.
K. Eisele, Jan Wijnants (1631/32-1684) : ein Niederlandischer Maler der Ideallandschaft im Goldenen Jahrhundert : mit umfassendem Oeuvrekatalog, vol. I, Stuttgart 2000, p. 117, cat. no. 14, reproduced plate 14.

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 work was probably lined in the 1970s. It may have been more recently cleaned. The surface is smooth. No retouches are visible under ultraviolet light. Although there may be some fine retouches in the grey clouds in the sky, the darker colors of the foreground seem to be in very good 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."

Jan Wijnants was a prominent landscape painter, active primarily in Haarlem in the second half of the seventeenth century. His pictures appealed to 18th century English collectors’ taste for Dutch pastoral landscapes. The stylized tree, its spindly branches reaching into the clouds of the luminous afternoon sky, and thatched cottage in this composition are characteristic of Wijants' work.

It has been suggested that the figures are by Adriaen van de Velde or Paulus Potter.¹  

1. C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1927, vol. VIII, p. 442.