Lot 29: Willem van den Bundel (Brussels 1575-1655 Delft)

A wooded river landscape with soldiers, peasants and huntsmen on a path, a church through the trees beyond oil on canvas 423/4 x 643/4 in. (108.5 x 164.5 cm.) NOTES The artist was the son of Guilliaem van den Bundel, who as a Calvinist left Antwerp for Delft, where he owned an inn called Inde Verloren Soon on the Voldersgracht. Willem himself was in 1597 registered as an apprentice with Gillis van Coninxloo in Amsterdam, where, apart from a brief sojourn in Delft in 1603, he remained until after his father's death in 1620. In Amsterdam he established himself as an artist and art dealer, assisting at the sale of Coninxloo's estate in 1607 and in 1614 at that of Cornelis van der Voort's collection; his children were taught by Adriaen van Nieulandt. On his return to Delft in 1620, he purchased a house, De Drie Valcken, on the Vlamingstraat, becoming a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1623, although he was also active in Rotterdam, Dordrecht and The Hague. We are grateful to Drs. Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution to Van den Bundel on the basis of photographs. Drs. Pijl suggests a date for the present work in the 1630s, and has noted that the right hand side of the composition is closely followed in a slightly smaller painting by Van den Bundel, on panel, in a private collection (see J. Briels, Peintres flamands au berceau du SiŠcle d'Or hollandais, Antwerp, 1997, pp. 225 and 307, no. 348, illustrated).