Lot 721
ATTRIBUTED TO NICOLAES FICKE (1620-1702)
A HUNTING PARTY ON UPLAND NEAR AN OLD FARMHOUSE
Oil on canvas
80.5 x 68cm.
* In correspondence with Hugh Macandrew at The Ashmolean (on behalf of the owner), October 19th 1965, B. J. A. Renckens of the Rijksbureau in The Hague proposed the attribution to Ficke. He noted a similarity with the early work of Philips Wouwerman, commenting specifically upon the foreground hound and its comparison with the hound in Wouwerman's `Hunters at Rest` of 1645 (Mauritshuis). Ficke's work is quite scarce: only six works fully ascribed to his hand have appeared at auction in the last fifty years and it is possible that his output has been assigned to similar artists of the Italianate school such as Jan Both, Adam Pynacker or Adriaen van Eemont.
