Lot 165: Lucas van Valckenborch (Mechelen before 1535-1597 Frankfurt)

An extensive river landscape with millers on a road approaching a watermill, and a horse-drawn carriage with flour sacks crossing a ford in the foreground, a possible view of the Aartal valley beyond oil on panel 25.3 x 37.3 cm. PROVENANCE Herbeck collection (according to a label on the reverse). Anon. Sale, Heilbron, Berlin, 30 January 1912. with P. de Boer, Amsterdam, circa 1938. LITERATURE A. Wied, Lucas und Marten van Valckenborch, Freren, 1990, pp. 44-5 and 179, no. 84, illustrated. EXHIBITION Enschede, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, October 1929, no. 32. Laren, Singer Museum, Modernen van Toen 1570-1630, 15 June-1 September 1963, no. 150. NOTES We are grateful to Dr. A. Wied for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs; he compares the landscape in the background with that of four other works mentioned in his catalogue raisonn‚ ( op.cit., nos. 69-70 and 85-6). It was suggested by Heinz Friederichs ('Die „ltesten Darstellungen des Aartales. Letzte Gem„lde des Lucas van Valckenborch', Heimat-Jahrbuch des Untertaunuskreises Bad Schwalbach, 1960, pp. 96-100) that the landscape might be identified as the Aartal valley near Bad Schwalbach, where Lucas stayed at some point before 1596. The present lot is one of the five recorded works by the artist to incorparate the subject matter of the watermill.