Landscape with Three Trees in the Foreground

Lucas Achtschellinck

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the foreground of this wooded landscape, the white stem of a beech catches sunlight as it tilts to the right, thereby effectively leading the viewer further into the picture. The landscape descends into a valley with a castle and a distant hillside. The artist used an elaborate mixture of pen and ink, with tonally applied washes and white gouache to create rich tonal effects and a convincing sense of depth and texture, thereby enhancing the impressive structure of the composition. Lucas Achtschellink belonged to a group of Flemish landscapists, active in the surroundings of Brussels around the middle of the seventeenth century. His work shows strong resemblance to that of his presumed teacher, Lodewijk de Vadder (1605–1655) and his prolific contemporary Jacques d’Arthois (1613–1686), with whom his pictures are often confused. All three artists had a predilection for rustic, wooded landscapes, for which the Sonian Forest (Forêt de Soigne) nearby Brussels provided an outstanding source of inspiration.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art