Landscape with staffage

Forest Landscape with Staffage The painting from the museum collection presents a forest landscape with staffage of small human figures in the foreground and the background. A dual-plane composition, enclosed on both sides, with light falling from the left hand side. Dark and toned-down colours with various shades of green and brown. The elements enlivening the composition are the colourful outfits of persons taking part in the action. In the foreground, there is a gorge with a road at the bottom of it; on the road, there are four men engaged in a conversation and a black and white dog accompanying them. On the right hand side, a river is meandering along the right edge of the canvass; at its steep edge, there is a man and a woman with a child, holding the mother’s skirt. A boat is departing from the bank with two men on-board. In the background, there is a path turning to the left and disappearing among the trees. A man on a grey horse is riding on the road. On the left hand side, there are two men on horseback heading away and on the right hand side, a hilly and hazy landscape with buildings. The top of the painting is filled with blue sky, illuminated in pink and orange colours over the horizon. The author of the painting is Jacques d`Artois (born in 1613 in Brussels, deceased in 1686 also in Brussels), a Flemish painter and draughtsman. The favourite theme of his works were forest landscapes around Brussels, often with human figures, just like in the Łańcut painting. He painted large landscapes which decorated churches and abbeys. His brother and son were also painters, which makes it difficult to attribute individual works correctly. Jacques d’Artois was the leading landscape painter active in Brussels in the 17th century. The Łańcut painting has a wooden gilded and moulded frame; it can be admired in the Green Drawing Room which forms a part of the Gentleman’s Apartment on the first floor of the Łańcut Castle.