Adriaen van Stalbemt (Antwerp 1580-1662)

Adriaen van Stalbemt was active in Antwerp and Middelburg, and also spent ten months in 1633-4 in England, where, among other pictures, he painted two views of Greenwich. His style was eclectic, revealing the influences of Jan Breughel I, Hendrick van Balen, Paul Bril, and Adam Elsheimer, to whom a group of Stalbemt's pictures had previously been given (see K. Andrews, 'A Pseudo-Elsheimer Group: Adriaen van Stalbemt as Figure painter', in Burlington Magazine, CXV, 1973, pp. 301-6). This beautifully preserved panel exhibits Stalbemt's characteristically meticulous brush technique, from the miniature detailing of the shells in the forground, and the crisply delineated foliage, to the classical town that appears through the vaporous mist along the coastline beyond.