This charming late 18th-century oil painting by Flemish artist Jan Ludewick De Wouters (1731-after 1789) depicts a wooded view with horseback riders, various buildings including a ruin, a country track and distant town.

The success of this piece is, in part, due to an intelligent composition, providing two distinct routes for the eye to explore. On the left, a track worn by the continual grinding of hooves into mud, winds its way towards a ruin and through dense woodland. While on the right, our view extends across the foreground and out towards a carefully delineated town with a church spire and other prominent buildings. Sinuous trees, rendered particularly well, provide a visual division. This technique is reminiscent of works by the Dutch Golden Age luminary Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709).

The use of heavily contrasted areas of light and shade adds another layer of interest and perhaps suggests that the artist was conveying more than simply the view itself. Often, artists working during the 17th/18th century in this manner would provide a hidden narrative, linked to one’s adherence to the teachings of the church. E.g. on the right, glory abounds with the church spire conspicuous, while in the darkness, all is ruinous.

Jan Ludewick De Wouters is one of numerous artists who are lost to time due to unscrupulous behaviour by the art market. As his works are heavily influenced by the Dutch and Flemish Masters, most of them have been erroneously signed and ‘upgraded’. Fortunately, this one has survived unscathed, and it’s a fine example.

Signed/dated in the lower right and held in a later frame.

Medium: Oil on panel
Overall size: 29½” x 23½” / 75cm x 60cm
Year of creation: 1784
Provenance: Private collection, Spain.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Areas of fine and settled craquelure, as you would expect. The paint layer is stable. Two repaired cracks in the panel with corresponding retouching. Frame in good condition with minor age-related wear.
Artist’s auction maximum: £13,750 for ‘A Wooded River Landscape With Herdsmen Resting With Their Cattle & Sheep’, Oil on canvas, Christie’s, Old Masters & British Paintings, London, 4 May 2012 (lot 95).
Our reference: BRV2137