Pair Of Copper Paintings, Military March With Cavalry. Adam Frans Van Der Meulen, 17th Century

Pair of copper paintings, military march with cavalry. Adam Frans van der Meulen, 17th century

Pair of oil on copper paintings, one of the plates bearing a painted monogram in the foreground, clearly readable as A.F., with additional partially worn letters that can be interpreted as V.M., forming A.F.V.M., an element that allows the works to be connected with the Flemish painter Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632–1690).

The scenes depict a military march with cavalry, armed soldiers and covered wagons accompanying a baggage train through a rocky landscape opening towards a distant view under a luminous sky filled with moving clouds. The compositions follow a typical 17th-century Flemish landscape structure, with rocky and wooded side elements framing the scene and leading the eye into depth.

The subject, with horsemen, soldiers armed with muskets, pack horses and covered wagons used for transporting supplies and baggage, is characteristic of military campaign and troop movement scenes from the second half of the 17th century.

Adam Frans van der Meulen, born in Brussels in 1632, was invited to France in 1664 by Charles Le Brun and entered the service of Louis XIV, becoming the principal painter of the king’s military campaigns. He produced numerous views of battles, marches and army convoys, especially during the War of Devolution and the Franco-Dutch War. Alongside large official compositions, he also painted smaller works, sometimes on copper, intended for private collectors, in which the theme of troop movement in landscape frequently appears.

Technique: oil on copper. The plates are mounted and protected on the reverse with wooden panels.

Second half of the 17th century

Dimensions without frame: 21 × 18 cm each

Carved and gilded wooden frames, old, probably of the same period.

Good condition.