(Antwerp 1706–1770)
A winter landscape with numerous figures in a village,
oil on panel, 51 x 72 cm, framed

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original. His written certificate, dated 2 June 2022, accompanies this lot.

This well-preserved winter landscape is a characteristic work by Beschey, who is known in particular for his painting technique, resulting in a jewel-like brilliance of colour. Together with Joseph van Bredael, Beschey belongs to a group of Antwerp landscape painters from the first half of the eighteenth century who, driven by the tastes and demands of contemporary collectors such as the Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria, emulated works by the Flemish masters of the seventeenth century, especially by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Joos de Momper (1564–1635).

Beschey had access to the earlier masters’ works through family connections. Art connoisseurs met frequently at the house of Balthasar Beschey, Karel’s younger brother, to study the works of the great Flemish and Dutch artists of the previous generations. Balthasar was not only a painter, but also a successful art dealer with a restoration studio in Antwerp. Thanks to his brother’s excellent social connections, Karel soon found numerous patrons for his paintings and was held in high esteem. Later in life he was appointed to the post of director of the Antwerp Academy of Arts.

Winter landscapes where a highly desirable genre in Netherlandish painting of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The weather conditions during the winter months changed the atmosphere, air, light and indeed the colours. This phenomenon must have been a great challenge for painters. The so-called Little Ice Age, which swept Europe from the fifteenth century until the early eighteenth century, made winter a much more present fact of everyday life than ever before or after, with overall average temperatures dropping by two degrees Celsius.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder heralded the fashion for winter scenes in Flanders in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. By the early seventeenth century, with artists such as Joos de Momper, they had become an independent genre. Comparable developments can also be observed in Holland with painters such as Hendrick Avercamp, Adriaen van de Venne and the Beerstraaten. Another factor was that the special activities and joys of winter, the positive aspects of snow and ice, were very attractive anecdotal motifs for painters as well as for collectors. Ertz writes in his report: ‘Beschey always tells a story that could have taken place in the villages in winter in his time: bundled wood is carried home on the head; on the frozen rivers there is a multitude of winter amusements with sleds and skates, and there are always small crowds of people in front of the church or by the river, watching the merry goings-on there.’ Ertz continues: ‘The sfumato, laid like a veil over the entire picture, is adapted to the wintry mood and is of great delicacy. Karel Beschey combines miniature-like painting technique with an accentuated modeled landscape and was one of the most successful Flemish painters of the 18th century. Together with his brothers, who were also painters, the painting of the Antwerp School experienced its last great peak with the Bescheys’.

Winter landscapes by Beschey are extremely rare today. A painting comparable to the present work was sold at Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 8 May 2007, lot 5; and another at Sotheby’s, London, 27 April 2006, lot 17.