Winter Landscape - Attributed To Denys Van Alsloot (1570 - 1628)

Oil on oak panel. Flemish school of the seventeenth century attributed to Denys van Alsloot.
In an atmosphere of great coldness, the composition that opens before our eyes mixes both humor and magic. In a monochrome of blues and greens on bistre or pink grounds, characters with theatrical attitudes punctuate the decor and enliven the scene. On a frozen expanse, a man falls throwing his eggs under the eyes of a desolate old merchant, a flickering skater tries to keep the balance, a remorcher agrees to a break at the edge of the water, a hunter accompanied by his dog comes back to the village, a gentleman wearing strawberry and high hat walks ...
The particular gradation of colors is an integral part of van Alsloot's universe: the browns then the flat greens in the foreground, and the blues in the backgrounds. Also, the composition, initially closed to focus on the drama that is played, opens in the background on a panoramic village view on the edge of a forest. This is a pattern often borrowed by the Flemish master. The diaphanous light that floods the distance adds to the dreamlike atmosphere of our painting.
In Flanders or in the Netherlands, at the end of a small ice age, life does not seem to be affected by the negative temperatures or bad weather, the economic activity continues and the joys of skating occupy the free time.

Stamp of wax with the arms of Count de Polignac on the back.
Dimensions: 51 x 74 cm the view - 67 x 90 cm with the frame

Denys van Alsloot (Mechelen 1570 - Brussels 1628) is a Flemish painter cited from 1593 (date in which he participated in the decoration of a monument in l Notre-Dame du Sablon church in Brussels). Received master at the court of the Archduke of Austria Albert in 1599, he became famous and frequently collaborates with Hendrick de Clerck (the latter will sometimes paint the characters in the compositions of van Alsloot). A meticulous landscape in the furrow of Gillis van Coninxloo, his wide views announce the landscape of the Brussels school (Jacques d'Arthois, Lucas Achtschellinck or Lodewijk de Vadder). Van Alsloot in museums: three major compositions at the Prado Museum in Madrid, three more at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a Winter Landscape at the Louvre Museum in Paris, two works in the collections of the Royal Museums of Brussels in Belgium ...