DENYS VAN ALSLOOT
1570-162881 Forest Landscape with a
Distant Castle
Pen and brown ink and brown and blue-gray wash; H:
- 3 cm (8 in.); W: 27.6 cm (io^7 /8Ín.)
86.GA.9
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom left cor-
ner, dated 1608 in brown ink; at bottom right corner,
signed D.ab Alsloot.S.A.Pic: in brown ink; (verso) in-
scribed Alsloot in graphite.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Paris; art market,
London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THIS AND TWO FURTHER EXAMPLES, ONE DATED I0o8
(Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts inv. M. 33 5) and another
dated ion,^1 are among the handful of signed drawings
by Alsloot that have been published. In contrast to the
sketchy character of other drawings associated with him,
these three are fully developed compositions of great
technical refinement. Although it cannot be ruled out
that the Museum's drawing was made as a study for a
painting, it was more probably made as an independent
work of art. It offers a tranquil prospect through a forest
toward buildings on a distant bluff. Alsloot's landscapes
frequently combine imaginary forest scenes with views
of castles and abbeys located in the forest of Soignes near
Brussels, a region with close historical ties to the Brussels
court, where he was employed as official painter. The
previously mentioned drawing in the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts, which is particularly close in composition to the
present example, shows the chateau of Tervueren in the
background. The specificity of the structures and topog-
raphy in the background of the Museum's drawing sug-
gests that the view may also correspond to an actual site
that has not yet been identified.I.E. Brugerolles with the assistance of D. Guillet, Renaissance
et maniérisme dans les écoles du nord: Dessins des collections de l'Ecole
des Beaux-Arts, exh. cat. (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1985), no. 121; Master
Drawings Presented by Adolphe Stein, exh. cat. (Bury Street Gal-
lery, London, 1981), no. I.192 FLEMISH SCHOOL • ALSLOOT