(Ovelgönne 1613 – after 1678)
A winter landscape with ice skaters on a river
signed and dated at lower left: Gio... Heimbach (Pit) tore fecit/Anno domini 16..,
oil on canvas, 81.5 x 115 cm, framed

Provenance:
European Private Collection

The present painting is the only winter scene in Heimbach’s oeuvre known at present. It is comparable, in terms of composition and perspective, to two Venetian vedute by Heimbach, one of which is in a private collection in Westphalia, the other is conserved in the collection of Baron Landsberg-Velen in Drensteinfurt near Münster. Heimbach´s signature rarely occurs in this form and it is known from one of Heimbach’s letters to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, for whom he worked in the 1640s.

Heimbach, came from Northern Germany and started his career as a court painter to the Count of Oldenburg. He later travelled to Italy, where he worked for the Medici and Doria Pamphilj families. Between 1653 and 1663 the artist was a court painter to King Frederick III of Denmark. As he specialised in portraits and interiors, the artist painted only few landscapes, and therefore the present winter landscape stands out from his oeuvre as a rarity.