Lot 5: CAREL BESCHEY

A WINTER LANDSCAPE WITH HUNTERS AND SKATERS ON A FROZEN RIVER RUNNING THROUGH A VILLAGE;
A SUMMER LANDSCAPE WITH VILLAGERS RESTING BY A STREAM
a pair, the former signed lower left: CBeschey
the latter signed lower left: C. Beschey

the former: 27.2 by 33.1 cm.; 10 3/4 by 13 in. the latter: 26.5 by 33.7 cm.; 10 1/2 by 13 1/4 in.

both oil on panel

In the collection of the family of the present owners since at least 1896.

Like those of his contemporaries Theobald Michau and Josef Bredael, the majority of Beschey's landscapes rely heavily on those of Jan Brueghel the Elder from the beginning of the seventeenth century. His few winter landscapes, however, display a greater independence. Beschey was helped in finding patrons and buyers for his paintings by his younger brother, Balthasar; an art dealer and portraitist who became a very influential figure in artistic life in Antwerp. At his house fellow art lovers regularly met to study the work of the great Dutch and Flemish masters.

Intact signed pairs of summer and winter landscapes by Beschey are today extremely rare, although a similar pair, of slightly larger dimensions, was sold Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 8 May 2007, lot 5 (for ?380,000). A secondary version of the present winter landscape was sold Monaco, Sotheby's, 2 July 1993, lot 61, and similar winter landscapes by the artist were sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2006, lot 17 (for £120,000), and London, Phillips, 9 December 1986, lot 48 (£55,000).