(Antwerp 1580–1662)
A landscape with shepherds and their flock and an abbey in the background,
signed lower centre: STALBEMT,
oil on canvas, 65.5 x 91 cm, framed

We are grateful Klaus Ertz for confirming the authenticity of the present painting. He will include it in his forthcoming monograph on Stalbemt.

The present painting is one of the extremely rare signed works by Stalbemt, who is rightly regarded as one of the most excellent painters in the circle of Jan Brueghel the Elder. Employing a subtle technique and preferring vibrantly powerful colours, he frequently referred to Brueghel and Gillis van Coninxloo as his models. Because of their delicate handling of the foliage and their bluish-green tonality, Stalbemt’s works have frequently been attributed to this most famous of all Antwerp landscapists. Thanks to reattributions to Stalbemt made in recent years, which also include the present composition, the oeuvre of this outstanding master has come to present itself more distinctly. Such landscapes as the present example are not only proof of Adriaen van Stalbemt’s closeness to Jan Brueghel the Elder, but also of his enormous virtuosity as a painter.

Cornelis de Bie reports about Stalbemt’s life that the artist was born in Antwerp in 1580. However, being Protestant, the family moved to Middleburg, following Antwerp’s fall in 1585. The artist thus likely received his training amongst the painters of Middleburg. In 1609, Stalbemt returned to Antwerp and the following year was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke. In 1617 he was elected the guild’s dean. In addition to his activities as a landscape painter and collaborator of several Antwerp masters – who testify to the great renown he enjoyed in the town on the River Scheldt, which boasted a substantial number of outstanding artists – the art dealer Peter Goetkint II commissioned from him small copper panels intended for the decoration of cabinets. In 1633, accepting a call from King Charles I, he spent ten months in England. His views of Greenwich with portraits of Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria are still preserved in the Royal Collection.