CORNELIS HUYSMANS attrib. to

FOREST LANDSCAPE WITH A LAKE

CORNELIS HUYSMANS
Antwerpen 1648 - 1727 Mechelen

Oil on canvas, 53 × 75 cm / 20.8 × 29.5 in
with frame: 71 × 86 cm / 28 × 33.8 in
Yellowed varnish; age-related wear; the painterly surface remains legible.


The present landscape, attributed to Cornelis Huysmans, belongs to a moment in Flemish painting when the long-established tradition of Teniers and Artois begins to shift in character. In the second half of the seventeenth century, Flemish landscape painters continue to rely on their familiar visual language, yet their work gradually moves toward a more structured, court-oriented aesthetic. France played an increasingly important role in this transformation—though the exchange was mutual and complex—and its influence contributed to a new, more classicising conception of nature. As a result, the Flemish landscape of this period becomes more orderly in composition, yet at the same time more painterly and atmospheric.
Despite the yellowed varnish now softening the surface, the quality of execution is still evident. The brightly lit right foreground is painted with assurance and fluency, while the centre of the composition opens into a carefully constructed, multi-layered perspective. Works of this type represent a northern response to the classicising landscape of Italy: an attempt to show the world north of the Alps as equally capable of grandeur and pictorial richness. This rethinking of landscape found a receptive audience among the aristocracy, which explains why Huysmans enjoyed the patronage of James II of England and Queen Mary of Modena.
Cornelis Huysmans (baptised in Antwerp in 1648; died in Mechelen in 1727) was active in Antwerp, Brussels and Mechelen, and came to occupy a leading place in Flemish landscape painting at the turn of the eighteenth century. He is particularly known for his pseudo-Italianate scenes with mountainous horizons, shaped by the influence of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques d’Arthois. Orphaned early, he was apprenticed to Gaspar de Witte, a formative figure in his approach to wooded terrain and natural detail. He later moved to Brussels, where he likely worked with Jacques d’Arthois and spent time drawing the landscapes around Dinant and Namur—material that informed much of his later work. Between 1686 and 1688 he lived in London, where, according to Horace Walpole, he enjoyed the favour of prominent patrons, including James II. He produced several large landscapes for the English market. After the Glorious Revolution he returned to the Southern Netherlands, dividing the remainder of his career between Mechelen and Antwerp, where he held guild membership and continued to work until his death.
Huysmans’s landscapes are characterised by precise observation of nature, especially in his treatment of forests and trees. Although his compositions recall, in part, the Arcadian spirit of Poussin, the strongest influence was that of Jacques d’Arthois. Many of his scenes show a forest edge with a sandy bank in the foreground, a diagonal clearing leading into depth, and strong contrasts of light and shade that create a dramatic effect. His brushwork is bold and direct, and the repetition of certain compositional devices gives his work a recognisable unity. Unlike d’Arthois, however, Huysmans bathes his landscapes in a warm, Italian light, further reinforced by vegetation and architectural motifs chosen for their southern character. In doing so, he succeeded in giving the northern landscape a grandeur that appealed both to local collectors and to foreign patrons.