Victor-honoré Janssens (1658–1736) - Arcadian Landscape - Oil On Canvas

Victor-Honoré Janssens (Brussels, 1658–1736)

Arcadian Landscape

Oil on canvas
38 × 54 cm

A beautiful composition by Victor-Honoré Janssens, a Flemish painter of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, known in particular for his mythological and historical scenes and his landscapes populated by figures.

The composition depicts a vast Arcadian landscape animated by several groups of figures. In the foreground, young women present doves to a reclining woman, while a scene of sacrifice and a banquet unfolds nearby. In the background, a landing on the shore completes the scene and accentuates the depth of the landscape.

In terms of its subject matter, composition, and treatment of the figures, this work fits within Janssens’s repertoire and reflects the taste for idealized landscapes and pastoral and mythological scenes that characterizes part of his body of work.

The attribution to Victor-Honoré Janssens was confirmed by François Marandet, a specialist in early Flemish painting.

Another version of this composition was offered for sale at Christie’s South Kensington on December 13, 2002, lot 121.

The painting is set in an antique gilded wooden frame, adorned at the bottom center with a bronze cartouche bearing the name of Victor-Honoré Janssens.