Assault in a forest, oil on panel, 45 x 40.5 cm, framed

This painting is a collaboration between the landscape artist Alexander Keirincx and the battle painter Pieter Snayers. Dr. Härting dates the painting into the early 1620s. Certificate: Dr. Ursula Härting. „These two highly renowned artists were trained in Antwerp: Keirincx was a pupil of Abraham Govaerts, while Snayers was presumably apprenticed to Sebastiaen Vrancx. Keirincx became a master in 1619 and temporarily lived in England, where he worked for King Charles I; he then moved to Amsterdam. Pieter Snayers was appointed court painter in Brussels in 1628. His later paintings depict famous battles from the Thirty Years‘ War.“ The present scene impressively describes the reality of everyday life in the seventeenth century, in the surroundings of such Flemish towns as Antwerp and Brussels. The religious war, epidemics, and high prices for wheat entailed deserted villages and fallow land, as well as the formation of gangs and assaults. This assault in a forest is closely related to a painting in Darmstadt, Assault in a Clearing, which is likewise the result of the collaboration between Keirincx and Snayers.

Provenance: Vienna private collection.