Jan Lievens (Leiden 1607-1674 Amsterdam)

Part of a group of landscape drawings, utilising fluid and expressive brushwork, many of which represent wooded scenes or studies of country houses and farms. The present drawing is very comparable in style to the Farm Building among Trees at Christ Church, Oxford (J. Byam Shaw, Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church, Oxford, Oxford, 1976, I, no. 1410, II, pl. 836). Although the group was given to Lievens by Schneider, it was then for some years attributed, incorrectly, to Johannes Leupenius (circa 1646-1693) (see, for example, Bernt op. cit.). The attribution to Lievens was reinstated by Sumowski who noted that there was no plausible link to Leupenius.