(active in Middelburg 1617–1642)
A wooded landscape with riders and travellers,
oil on copper, 11.5 x 18 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Belgium

The present picture shows a fowling party, muskets hoisted, riders sitting back in their stirrup irons, and others sitting on the ground, all taking a break from their sporting activities, on a forest track beside a river which snakes into the background with a church steeple visible beyond. Although redolent of the style of his Flemish mannerist landscape contemporaries, the figures and foliage in the present work are characteristic of the Middleburgh painter Christoffel van den Berghe, and are a charming testament to the enduring influence of Antwerp schools in the early Dutch Republic.

Little is known of the life of van den Berghe. He was born in Antwerp, before presumably moving to Middelburg as a religious refugee, where it is possible van den Berghe may have assisted Ambrosius Bosschaert, before being made a master himself of the guild of St. Luke in the Dutch town in 1621. As well as landscapes like the present picture, he also painted winter scenes in a more Northern manner, after Hendrick Avercamp, and several flower paintings in the style of his presumed master Ambrosius Bosschaert.