Jan Lievens

(Leiden 1607 - 1674 Amsterdam)

Hilly landscape with resting peasants

Panel, transferred to canvas, 74 x 154 cm

(before removal of the addition at the top in 2001: 99 x 154 cm)

Made available to art lovers and connoisseurs for the first time in more than 100 years, this landscape caused something of a sensation at the 1927 show at the Royal Academy in London. Lievens painted this work during his Antwerp period (1635-1644) under the influence of the late landscapes of Rubens. The somewhat clumsy walking peasant and the two resting ones in Hilly landscape with resting peasants are typical of Teniers's figural style in the period around 1640.

Noteworhty is also the impressionist way of paint application which is exceptional in 17th century Dutch painting (see also  Hobbema's A wooded landscape with roadside cottage).