Lot 17: KAREL BESCHEY ANTWERP 1706 - 1770

THE PROPERTY OF A NOBLEMAN

A WINTER LANDSCAPE WITH SKATERS ON A FROZEN RIVER, A VILLAGE AND WINDMILL BEYOND

measurements note
25.1 by 32.2 cm.; 10 by 12 3/4 in.

signed lower right: c. bescheij

oil on panel

NOTE

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 Flemish and Dutch masters.

A rare signed winter landscape by the artist, the present work may be compared with Beschey's slightly larger work sold London, Philips, 9 December 1986, lot 48 (£55,000), which is of an extremely similar compositional construction, but in reverse.