Lot 7: Attributed to Christoffel van den Berghe (?active Middelburg c. 1590-after 1645?)

A wooded village landscape with elegant figures
oil on copper
5 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (13.3 x 18.7 cm.)

Little is known about Van den Berghe and his oeuvre was for the first time only initially clarified in 1956 when Laurens Bol ascribed to him a small group of pictures, bearing the monogram 'CVB' formerly given to an anonymous monogrammist (L.J. Bol, Oud Holland, LXXI, 1956, pp. 183-95). Only around a dozen firmly attributed pictures by the artist have been identified, of which the majority are flower pieces. His landscapes are firmly rooted in what Bol terms the 'Middelburgh-Brueghel' tradition of landscape painting that grew up in that city in the second decade of the seventeenth century. He was strongly influenced by the work of Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne who was in Zeeland between 1614-25, and whose influence can be seen in the fancifully attired figures and the handling of the trees in the present picture.

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