ISAAC VAN OOSTEN

(Antwerp, 1613 - 1661) Peasant village Signed Oil on copper, 32X44 cm Provenance: London, Sotheby's, 21 April 2005, lot 9 There is little biographical information about Isaac van Oosten, who is reported to have been a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1617, but we do not know which artist he trained under. His production mainly consists of landscapes, exhibiting a style that evokes in particular the works of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Jan Brueghel the Younger, with whom he is often confused, and of other Flemish painters of his contemporaries such as Alexander Keirincx, Lucas van Uden and Jan Wildens. The painting in question is typical of his style, devoted to depicting lake scenes with a diffuse and clear luministic direction, in which an unreal atmospheric tranquillity reigns, the same that can be perceived, for example, when observing the Paesaggio campestre (Countryside Landscape) previously at Sotheby's London (10 July 2008, lot 140). The copper painting under examination qualifies as one of the artist's best, in terms of pictorial quality and freshness.