A vast landscape featuring an assault by highwaymen, oil on panel, 48 x 74 cm, original carved and gilded Louis-XV frame

We are grateful to Dr Ursula Härting for identifying the artist after examining the original painting, which is accompanied by a certificate by her dated 2012.

Together with Adriaen van de Venne, Christoffel van den Berghe, and Jacob van Geel, Matheus Molanus, called “Sneebrueghel”, numbers among the leading landscape painters of Middelburg, a town whose artistic production was determined by the numerous refugees from Antwerp. Molanus’s oeuvre was influenced by early Antwerp landscape painting, primarily by Gillis van Coninxloo and Jan Brueghel the Elder. In the present painting, this impact is apparent particularly in the bluish-green and brown tones by which the space of the picture is organized.

Due to the fact that he produced several winter landscapes, Molanus received the nickname “Sneebrueghel”. Little is known about Molanus’s life. In 1626, he was appointed superintendent of the Guild of Saint Luke of Middelburg. He preferred small and medium-sized formats and, in the tradition of Brueghel, employed the traditional brown, blue, and green shading.