(Frankenthal before 1586 – after 1661)
A wooded landscape with huntsmen by a river,
oil on panel, 24.7 x 36.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Baroness Henriette Gevers-de Graeff (1909–1992), Driesbergen, The Netherlands;
Noble collection, The Netherlands

We are grateful to Luuk Pijl for confirming the present painting as an autograph work by Anton Mirou on the basis of a photograph. His certificate of authenticity is available.

Luuk Pijl writes: ‘This charming wooded landscape is a previously unknown work by Anton Mirou, to be dated to c. 1607/08. It shows us a wood in which the viewer is invited by a waterway in the foreground, which bends left and right opening to views in the distance. The pictorial space appears to have followed Karel van Mander’s advice, formulated in his Schilderboek of 1604, to organize the different spaces in a landscape painting in the shape of a snake in order that they gradually run into each other, also to have no heaps placed over one another. Hence the small hidden figures which do not disturb the view. The oeuvre of Mirou consists of mountain valleys and woods enlivened with peasants, fishermen and sportsmen on a small scale. Dated works are known from 1595–1621. The present painting is a relatively early work.’