Lot 42: Isaac Willaerts (Utrecht 1620-1693) A coastal landscape

A coastal landscape with elegant figures on the shore and fishermen unloading their catch
signed 'I Willarts f' (on spar, lower centre)
oil on panel
40.6 x 73.4cm (16 x 28 7/8in).

PROVENANCE:
Sale, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, March 1958 (according to a label on the reverse)

Isaac Willarts drew inspiration from his father, Adam Willaerts (1577-1664), whose experience in first Antwerp and then Holland found influence from respectively the landscape painter, Jan Brueghel the Elder and the marine painter, Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom. The precise colourful detail in the foreground and the horizontal coastal format in the present painting are characteristic of such compositions and although Isaac's works are generally considered to have been more loosely painted, the present panel comes close in quality to his father's achievement.