Our marvellous, lush and gentle wooded river landscape testifies of Rubens’ influence on Lucas van Uden: this rural idyll is a celebration of Flanders’ countryside.

 

 

Flemish painter

Antwerp 1595 – 1672/73 Antwerp

 

Important landscape painter.

 

Probably pupil of his father, Artus, who was also a landscape painter.

 

Master in the Antwerp Painter’s Guild of Saint Luke from the year 1626/27 onwards.

 

Lucas van Uden is said to have worked in Rubens’ workshop. He was strongly influenced by Rubens and copied him during the 1630.

 

He collaborated with numerous figure painters: Pieter van Avont, Hendrick van Balen, Pieter Bout, Gonzales Coques, Frans Francken II, Jacob Jordaens, Jan Baptist van der Meiren and David Teniers II.

 

He was influenced by Joost de Momper II in his vast panoramic landscapes and by Jan Brueghel I in his small-scale landscapes.

 

 

Our peaceful landscape testifies of the profound influence of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, the most celebrated 17th century Flemish painter, on Lucas van Uden. Rubens’ religious and mythological paintings were made on commission, but he painted his widely admired landscapes for himself. 

Van Uden on the other hand was a professional landscape painter. But both painters found their inspiration in Virgil’s pastoral poetry.

 

These quiet, calm prospects should be seen against the political reality in Flanders, a region that regularly needed to recover from devastations of war, especially of the Eighty Year’s War (1568 – 1648). The well-fed cows returning to the farm at right and the numerous sheep and lambs at left refer to a desire for peace and prosperity.

 

 

Because you shall enjoy daily the pleasure that the painter had in creating this celebration of trees, sunlight and reflections in the water.