In an unidentified landscape streaked with the long shadows of evening, a variety of people go about their business. Among the figures are courting couples and a number of gardeners, both suggestive of fertility and fruitfulness. In the front right corner, three women make music. The fourth member of their party has put down his violin and twists to reach out to a woman, who bends over responsively as her male companion looks on, apparently startled. The group anticipates the eighteenth-century fêtes galantes (‘courtship parties’) made famous by the artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.
The picture has been dated to the 1640s and 1650s on account of the costumes. The landscape seems to be the work of a follower of Joos de Momper II, while the figures appear to have been painted by a different artist. The inscription seems to be a later addition in an attempt to attribute the picture to David Vinckboons (1576–1632/3).
Viewed from a high vantage point up the slope of a hill, a variety of people go about their business in an unidentified landscape streaked with the long shadows of evening. The sunset scene shows a gentle transition from the natural landscape of rugged trees that frame the front of the picture to the man-made one further back, which includes an avenue of trees, manicured formal gardens, a church and a manor house.
Among the figures are courting couples and a number of gardeners, both suggestive of fertility and fruitfulness. In the front right corner of the picture, three women make music: one sings, one plays the flute and one plays the lute. The fourth member of their party has put down his violin and is instead engaged in an ambiguous exchange: he twists to reach out to a woman, who bends over responsively as her male companion looks on, apparently startled. The group anticipates the eighteenth-century fêtes galantes (‘courtship parties’) made famous by the artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.
The picture has been dated to the 1640s and 1650s on account of the costumes. The landscape seems to be the work of a follower of the landscape painter Joos de Momper II, but the figures appear to have been painted by a different artist. The inscription seems to be a later addition in an attempt to attribute the picture to David Vinckboons (1576–1632/3).
