Rest on the Flight to Egypt, Signed

Signed in the center: I d. Moucheron Fecit 1724

Isaac de Moucheron was the son of the artist Frederik de Moucheron with whom he apprenticed before going to Rome in 1694 or 1695. Isaac de Moucheron was known as a landscape painter, engraver and draughtsman. He remained in Rome at least two years. In Rome, he specialized in vedute, and worked mainly in the company of other northern artists who called him “ordonantie” as part of the Schildersbent society of Dutch and Flemish painters in Rome. They called themselves “birds of a feather” and, aside from being a social group, helping one another, they worked in opposition to the Roman Academia di S. Luca over fiscal matters. The society was known for their drunken revels; they viewed themselves as anti-academic and held that inspiration, rather than learning, the important feature of their art.
Returning to Amsterdam in 1697, Isaac de Moucheron painted the landscapes for the works of N Verklje and Jakob de Wit with a facile, open, and most pleasing technique, reminiscent of Gaspar Dughet. Isaac was so admired in Holland that commissions came from many aristocrats for him to decorate their houses. As an engraver he was noted for his series with four views of gardens and another series of etchings after Dughet, the nineteen views of Heenstede, and ten landscapes after Poussin. His depiction here of the Rest on the Flight to Egypt sets a biblical subject in the Roman Campagna, his favorite landscape background. Another work, such as View of the River Tiber (c. 1696; Warsaw, N. Mus.), show an atmospheric view of Rome from the south.
In making Roman townscapes the main subject of his paintings, he followed the singular example of Gaspar van Wittel, (Van Vitteli), and also copied paintings by Nicolas Poussin. His interest in the classicist French masters had a clearly recognizable effect on his work. Statues and Buildings on the Water in a Park, Amsterdam, The Rijksmuseum, with its geometrically designed garden, its lake and architecture made for the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam is an example of his new subjects. Two houses in Amsterdam still retain the wall decorations de Moucheron painted; at 168 Herengracht; although most are lost - they included figures by Jakob de Wit. The colours and tones show that de Moucheron considered the lighting in the rooms and the scenes create an illusion that the walls reveal open spaces beyond. He had many patrons in Amsterdam for whom he painted wall panels with both garden scenes and subjects as the “senses”, the “virtues” (with Jacob de Wit) and Biblical scenes. The subjects were not only pleasing, but finely drawn. De Moucheron also acted as an architect for the Logement Van Amsterdam in the Hague 1734-1737.
Besides de Moucheron’s preparatory drawing, a number of finished drawings exist in pen and ink and with watercolours, such as the drawing shown here, and the Italian villa with Park in the Hamburg Kursthalle.
De Moucheron was fond of trees framing his landscapes with a river or stream running from the left background to the right foreground as in the sheet shown here.