Marten Ryckaert (Antwerp 1587 - 1631), 'A wooded landscape with Abraham expelling Hagar and Ismael'

Ryckaert, who was active in Antwerp in the early seventeenth century, drew his inspirations from artists as Paul Bril and Jan Brueghel I. Initially a pupil of his father, he was later apprenticed to the landscape painter Tobias Verhaecht, who also was the teacher of Joos de Momper. Although the artist’s Italianate style has frequently been explained by a sojourn in Italy between 1605 and 1610, it is not documented that Ryckaert ever undertook such a journey. Ryckaert’s artistic production was probably more influenced by Paul Bril’s works made after the latter’s Italian journey and that circulated in Antwerp from 1600 onwards. In 1611, Ryckaert joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, where he was known as “the painter with one arm”. Despite his handicap he was a highly productive artist whose landscapes featuring ruins, mountains, waterfalls, and views of idyllic valleys were greatly cherished. A portrait of Ryckaert by the hand of his painter friend Anthony van Dyck is now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

A certificate of authenticity by Luuk Pijl is available.