(Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp)
A rocky river landscape with the hermit Wendelin of Trier,
inscribed lower left: S. Wendelinus,
oil on copper, 17.5 x 23.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, France;
sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 26 May 1989, lot 127 (as Maarten de Vos);
Private collection, Germany

Literature:
K. Ertz, C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Die Gemälde, vol. II, Lingen 2008–2010, pp. 655–57, no. 316

Jan Brueghel I referred to an engraving by Johann and Raphael Sadeler, published in 1594 after a painting of the hermit Malchus of Chalcus by Maarten de Vos, as a model for the present composition. Ertz assumes that the painting was made in Rome in 1595. He writes: “In 1969, H. G. Franz was the first to point out the influence of Maarten de Vos on the development of the landscape subject, particularly on the evolution of the forest landscape into a genre in its own right, by linking Italian forms and ideas with Flemish ones. Jan the Elder especially relied on de Vos’s early attempts – vast forest landscapes with mountains, valleys, rivers, and forests – i.e. ‘invented’ Mannerist world landscapes.

As a fine example of this early influence exercised by de Vos, cat. no. 316 displays many features that would later inform the art of Jan Brueghel the Elder (K. Ertz, C. Nitze-Ertz, op. cit., p. 656).”