Wooded landscape with the Holy Family at rest, Flemish school, 17th century

Presented in a fine 17th-century frame in molded and gilded wood with acanthus leaf motifs.
Total dimensions: 70 x 110 cm. Canvas: 57 x 95 cm

Shortly after the birth of the infant Jesus, the Holy Family fled from Judea to Egypt to escape King Herod, who was putting to death all children under the age of two (Massacre of the Innocents) in a bid to eliminate the future “King of the Jews”, an angel having warned Joseph in a dream. They returned seven years later, also warned by the angel of Herod's death.

This subject has been treated many times by the old masters, and as you will have noticed, there's nothing Egyptian about the landscape! The European painters, who had never traveled there, painted this scene in their everyday environment. In this case, a dense forest with profuse vegetation.

This type of landscape, with its predominant greens and blues, was very much in vogue in Flanders in the early 17th century, so it's rather difficult to be categorical and give a definite attribution!
Nevertheless, our research suggests the painter Pieter van Avont, a Flemish draughtsman, engraver and art dealer born in Mechelen in 1600 and who died in Deurne in 1652.

Pieter van Avont is best known for his religious and mythological scenes, as well as his cabinet paintings. A motif that appears in many of van Avont's works is the Holy Family in landscapes.

As was common in 17th-century Antwerp artistic practice, van Avont collaborated with many leading Flemish painters, including Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Lucas van Uden, Jan Wildens, Frans Wouters, David Vinckboons, Jacques d'Arthois, Lucas Achtschellinck, Lodewijk de Vadder and Izaak van Oosten.

Pieter van Avont most probably received commissions from Archduke Leopold-Guillaume, Governor General of the Spanish Netherlands, as the Archduke is known to have owned a Landscape with the Virgin and Child with Angels painted by van Avont. Despite these commissions, Pieter van Avont was unable to make a living from his art, and operated a sideline business as a dealer in paintings and engravings.

Provenance :
English collection in the 19th century (label on back).
Then French collection.

Very good condition