JAN SIBERECHTS (Antwerp 1627-1703 London)

A Flemish painter of views of the Flemish countryside of great distinction and charm who went on to become a pioneer of views of English country estates (see J. Ward, Jan Siberechts (1627-1703). A 17th century Flemish Landscape Painter of Innovative English Estate Portraiture. Including Catalogue Raisonné, s.l., 2016), Siberechts also left a small number of drawings – no more than thirty – which were comprehensively studied in a recent article by Gregory Rubinstein (op. cit.). This drawing, of painstaking realism while also bringing to mind works by earlier artists such as Paul Bril and Roelant Savery, belongs to a small group of tree studies by Siberechts, of which the others – all with watercolor – are in the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris (inv. 4542), the British Museum (inv. 1909,040) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 2003.1; see Rubinstein, op. cit., pp. 372-377, figs. 11, 14-17). The sketch in black chalk on the verso, which appears to be a study of a sculpture, is the only known drawing of its type by Siberechts.