This small landscape shows a hunting scene: two riders
are chasing a stag with their dogs at the edge of a forest. Signed by Peter von
Bemmel, it is typical of the production of this artist, in the great tradition
of Dutch landscapes.
Peter von Bemmel was born in Nuremberg in 1685 into an
artistic family. His father, the Dutch-born painter Willem van Bemmel (1630 -
1708), was born in Utrecht and trained in the studio of Herman Saftleven the
Younger (1609 - 1685). After a ten-year sojourn in Italy, he settled in Nuremberg
in 1662 and specialised in Italian-style landscapes. Peter's elder brother
Johan Georg von Bemmel was also a painter, as were his two sons Christoph and
Johann Christoph.
Peter von Bemmel was a landscape painter and engraver.
His work, which is still very much influenced by his father's productions, is
well represented in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig and in the museums
of his home town, Nuremberg.
The Municipal Museums of Nuremberg house a related
work depicting a hunt in ponds near the city of Nuremberg whose silhouette
appears in the background of the composition. This painting has a number of
characteristic features that can be found in our artwork: the dark treatment of
the forest, which is only illuminated by a few light spots along the trees, the
central presence of water, and a bluish urban landscape in the background.
The afore mentioned composition is dated between 1730-1750.
We would like to propose an earlier date for our painting (ca. 1720-1730)
because it seems to us that the influence of Willem van Bemmel, the artist's
father, is more noticeable in this composition.