Master Art

This is a particularly fine example of the type of highly finished watercolour or gouache landscapes by Isaac de Moucheron that were highly praised by his contemporaries. As the 18th century biographer Johan van Gool noted of Moucheron, his ‘absolutely exquisite (‘overheerlyke’) drawings and watercolours are as esteemed and sought after as his paintings and pursued enthusiastically by connoisseurs.' A comparable subject is found in a watercolour by Moucheron of The Edge of a Forest with Riders and Dead Game, formerly in the Goll von Franckenstein and Klaver collections and sold at auction in Amsterdam in 1994. As Wedde has pointed out, the dead hare at the lower right of the present composition is repeated in the centre foreground of the ex-Klaver watercolour.

The first owner of this drawing was Jean Lucas van der Dussen (1724-1773), who bought the Kasteel Groeneveld in Baarn, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht, in 1755, later renovating and expanding the property significantly. The posthumous sale of his art collection at auction in 1774 included over 750 drawings, together with 37 paintings and more than 5,600 prints.