Pair Of Landscapes With Travelers And Hunters Resting, Jasper Van Der Lanen

Our two landscapes stretch out majestically under a clear, pink sky, where green tones blend harmoniously with soft blues, evoking an atmospheric perspective.

In the right foreground of a first landscape, travelers dressed like peasants are sitting on the ground and taking a little rest during their journey on foot.
A dog accompanies them and stands near a basket, as if attracted by its contents.
The travelers' bodies seem marked by the fatigue of walking, made more palpable by a large bag carried on a man's back.
Yet the whole scene expresses the serenity of the moment and the harmony between man and nature in the manner of the landscapes of Jan Brueghel the Younger, to whom Jasper Van Der Lanen has been linked from a stylistic point of view.

On the left a river meanders gracefully, its sparkling water reflecting the sky, while birds fly above it, heading towards the horizon.
In the distance to the right in a more intimate scene, a couple walks gently on a shaded path lined with flowering fruit trees, whose promising branches bring life and colour to this pastoral painting. As it is a pair, the other landscape is constructed in the same way.

Except that instead of being peasants, here they are five hunters who stop in the shade of large trees with abundant foliage and characteristic of the style of Jaspar Van Der Lanen.
We find in his composition the alternation of tones going from brown in the foreground, to evolve towards the green of the foliage and the moss of the trees, and become blue to make the air palpable in the clearing which opens the composition on the left. But also in the darkness of a path leading towards undergrowth in the centre of the painting.
A path which suggests the continuation of the march of the group of men.

The one who is furthest to the right holds his rifle at his sight, and is probably aiming at a bird.
The nearby clearing seems to be the ideal place to surprise game.

Jaspar Van Der Lanen studied with Nicolaas Geerts, and in 1607 became a member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
He also collaborated with Abraham Govaerts, another famous landscape painter, and continued his workshop after Govaerts' death.

2x Oil on copper, 16 x 22.5 cm.

Works in museums:
National Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires: The Hunt of Diana and Her Nymphs.
National Museum of Krakow: Landscape with Travellers in the Forest.