Adriaen van der Cabel

ABOUT THE ARTIST: 

Adriaen van der Cabel was a Dutch Golden Age artist who was born and raised in a small town near The Hague.  He was a student of Jan Van Goyen then travelled to Paris in 1655 before finally settling in Lyon as a young man.  His work can be confused with that of his brother Engel van der Cabel, who was 10 years his younger,  as their two artistic careers followed a similar direction. Both were members of the Bentvueghels and have travelled many times together until they stayed in Lyon, where Adriaen lived until his death. The 2 brothers were obviously close.  During their stay in Rome from 1659 to 1666, they are recorded in a police report as having jointly caused a fight!  

Adriaen specialised in painting, engraving, and drawing watercolours of landscapes, whose style is characterised by the softness of its colours. He acquired his skills thanks to his mixed training between the Italian and Dutch schools. His artistic work has been part of private collections such as those of Gaspar de Roomer, the Medici family and the Orsini and Colonna families.  

ABOUT THE SUBJECT: 

This work is a perfect example of the artist's preference for Mediterranean landscapes. Some of his details of style are reflected here, the representation of open spaces, ancient monuments, and the use of bright colours in cloth to contrast the light greys that predominate in the composition. Much activity is shown in the exquisite little picture with a beautiful mannerist composition which creates depth through the lightening of sky tones to the horizon line. There is a tranquil calm shown typical of his work with each figure group separately shown in some varying activity. Many of the component elements in this work are shown within his extensive collection of engravings at the Rijksmuseum. Figure groups, buildings even the hills within the landscape appear in many of his imaginary works when he created these idyllic capriccio scenes.

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