The Soignes Forest
by VADDER, Lodewijk de, Oil on canvas, 175 x 230 cm
A number of Brussels artists developed an individual landscape style with which to convey the characteristic appearance of the heavily forested area around their city - the ‘Soignes forest painters’ produced large and elegant wooded landscapes using an oil painting technique recalling that of Rubens. The human figures in their paintings are customarily shown as tiny compared to the luxuriant nature that fills the compositions with large, dark bodies of trees. The leading Brussels landscape artists were Lodewijk de Vadder (1605-1655), Jacques d’Artois (1603-1686) and Lucas Achtschellinck (1626-1699). Their landscapes have something of the character of tapestries and probably had a corresponding decorative function.