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Landscape with Gentlefolk and Gypsies
Jan Wildens (Flemish, 1586–1653)
late 1630s
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
130.2 x 203.2 cm (51 1/4 x 80 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of John Adams Blanchard
Accession Number73.9
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
This work was the first Flemish painting to enter the MFA’s collection. Wildens collaborated with a number of painters in Rubens’s circle, including Jacob Jordaens and Frans Snyders. He also contributed the landscape backgrounds for several of Rubens’s own tapestry designs and paintings. Wildens completed at least four versions of a composition depicting a ferry crossing a river. Similar to one another, each is distinguished only by the varying positions and numbers of “gentlefolk and gypsies” in the foreground.
InscriptionsFalsely signed, lower left: A Kierincks F. (signature no longer visible - see notes field)
ProvenanceBy 1850, John Adams Blanchard (b. 1807 - d. 1872), Boston [see note 1]; 1873, gift of Blanchard to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 24, 1873)
NOTES:
[1] Blanchard lent the painting to the Boston Athenaeum in 1850. The painting is falsely signed in the lower left "A. Keirincx F" and at the time was attributed to Alexander Keirincx.
NOTES:
[1] Blanchard lent the painting to the Boston Athenaeum in 1850. The painting is falsely signed in the lower left "A. Keirincx F" and at the time was attributed to Alexander Keirincx.