Carel Van Falens (attributed To) - The Crossing Of The River

Carel VAN FALENS (Attributed to) Antwerp, 1683 – Paris, 1733 Oil on canvas 12.7 x 20.3 cm (17.8 x 25.4 cm with frame) Trace of signature in the center above the horse's head "V F." (see photo) Inscription on the back "CASTAREDE"
Visible at the gallery

Our composition is typical of the small paintings of the Flemish painter Carel Van Falens. His genre scenes with elegant riders here crossing a river. Are generally signed. Here a half-erased monogram appears above the head of the white horse where we recognize the "F" in the characteristic writing and the beginning of the "V" curved to the left to continue the "C" as in the signature of the initials of Carel van Falens "CV F.". Carel van Falens was a Flemish painter who was a pupil of Constantyns Francken in Antwerp before moving to Paris – as his master had done – where he made his career from 1703. He was also a painter of battles and genre scenes with horses at the King's court, for the Duke of Orléans in particular, and a member of the Royal Academy of Painting. As a result, many of his paintings can be found in French collections. Van Falens has sometimes been confused with the famous Philip Wouvermans, even though the latter is a 17th-century painter who could have been his grandfather! But Van Falens takes up in his compositions the range of colours (his browns, beiges, blues and oranges in particular) and the canon of the horses, very beautiful horses in particular of a beautiful white and always very well drawn. And Carel van Falens' father was a captain in the local militia in Antwerp. And he also has this yellow light, also Italianate from his predecessor. But the coloring is less bright and warmer. And Van Falens shows a taste for small realistic details that is more modern (for example here, the details of the rider's costume and the young rider's umbrella, and the water splashing the horse that is about to cross the river). A handwritten inscription on the back of the frame seems to indicate that this painting belonged to the Castarède family. The Castarède family is a wealthy trading house founded in 1832 in the Armagnac region.