(Antwerp 1686–1750)
Elegant riders in a hunting scene with falcons,
oil on panel, 36.5 x 45.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium

The present painting is accompanied by a copy of a certificate by Jan de Maere of the Documentatiecentrum voor het Vlaams Kunstpatrimonium, Brussels, dated 29 November 2017. De Maere endorses the attribution and dates the painting to circa 1730.

The present work shows a group of fashionably dressed aristocrats who canter and prance in the foreground, whilst falcons swoop and hover above, closing in on their kill. The horses in particular are beautifully painted in a flowing style, skilfully suggesting the speed and noise of the hunt in full chase. The colourful costumes of the huntsmen are elaborate and costly and draw the viewer’s eye onto the unfolding scene. Two white horses lead the start of the hunt: ridden by a red-coated man with an ornate hat; the other carries a woman hunter in an elegant yellow dress with a red bow, riding side-saddle. Hunting was the prerogative of the aristocracy in mid-seventeenth century Holland; even a newly wealthy bourgeois who had bought land had to fulfil certain criteria before being given permission to hunt.

Jan Frans van Bredael was the son of the artist Alexander van Bredael, by whom he was trained in the profession in the city of Antwerp. According to Jan de Maere there was a signed agreement known from 1705 which states that the artist, together with his brother Josef van Bredael, worked for the dealer Jacob de Witte for four years to produce copies and pastiche works of renowned artists like Philips Wouwerman and Jan Brueghel I. Some decades after the aforementioned date the artist accompanied the sculptor Michiel Rysbrack to England where the pair became successful and received numerous commissions from the English aristocracy. Van Bredael returned to the continent and had a brief stay in Paris before settling in Antwerp where, according to De Maere, Louis XIV bought four of his works, of which two are conserved in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, The Departure for the Hunt (inv. no. gal.-no. 1131) and the Horsesmith (inv. no. gal.-no. 1130).