An Italianate landscape

Very little is known about Adriaen Jansz Ocker, an Amsterdam painter, other than the bare details of his life. He owned quarter of a house on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal, was married in 1656 and had a sojourn in London in 1668 (see A. Bredius, 'Archiefsprokkelingen: De schilder Adriaen Ockers', Oud-Holland, 58 (1931), pp. 185-6). Together with contemporaries such as Johannes Lingelbach, Jan Asselijn, Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Both, he executed works in the fashionable Italianate style. Though works by Ocker are rare, seldom appearing on the market, the present painting can be seen as characteristic of his oeuvre, with their delicate approach to light and use of clair obscure. Signed paintings by the artist were previously in the collections of Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein and Count Czernin in Oldenburg, though these were once erroneously attributed to Adam Pynacker. It is highly plausible that more paintings by Ocker have survived under different attributions. His pictures are stylistically close to those of Isaac and Frederik de Moucheron for instance, but also difficult to distinguish from artists such as Nicolaes Pimont.