Lot 1: Attributed to Hendrick Avercamp , Amsterdam 1585 - 1634 Kampen winter landscape with a hunter shooting duck at the edge of a frozen waterway oil on oak panel

bears monogram at the foot of the beacon lower centre: HA oil on oak panel

measurements note 23 by 31.3 cm.; 9 by 12 1/4 in.

Private Collection, Southern Germany;
Acquired from the above in 1952 by an Anonymous Private Collector;
By whom sold ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Christie's, 11 December 1992, lot 92, as by Arent Arentsz., called Cabel, for £120,000;
Shortly thereafter returned to the present owner.

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A signed variant of this composition, on a slightly larger panel (33 by 52 cm.) was sold in these Rooms, 24 March 1965, lot 77, and was later with P. de Boer in Amsterdam. The composition is similar to that of the present panel in most respects, including the crouching hunter and most of the skaters, but the design is extended to the right to include a second, standing hunter and a different dog, and does not include the distant village. The village, the distinctive foreground pole (with a bird atop it) and the dog do however recur in another panel by Hendrick Avercamp, sold London, Christie's, 15 April 1992, lot 29. Of smaller size than the present work (19 by 26 cm.), this panel is also signed in monogram. The staffage, especially to the left of the composition, is, however, very different. It seems most likely that the ex de Boer painting served as the prototype for this group of paintings. A close copy of the de Boer panel, signed in monogram by Arent Arentsz., called 'Cabel' (1585-1631), is in the Harold Samuel Collection in London.υ1 All of these pictures include the common motifs of the large pole in the foreground and the gibbet with its grisly load in the distance. As Sutton has observed, the pole is not tall enough to have served as a channel marker, but may have been used to help hoist heavy fishing nets. Such a pole may be found in operation in a painting by Barent Avercamp, Hendrick's nephew, today in Berlin.υ2 Although gibbets must have been a common enough sight in the Netherlands, the frequency with which they recur in works by Avercamp and many other artists suggests that they may have held a morally symbolic meaning. 1. P.C. Sutton, Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth Century paintings: The Harold Samuel Collection, Cambridge 1992, pp. 15-16, cat. no. 2, reproduced.
2. C. Welcker, Hendrick Avercvamp (1585-1634), Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). Schilders tot Campen, Doornspijk 1979, p. 331, BAS11, plate 38, fig. 63.