Lucas Smout II - A Coastal Landscape With Travellers and Fishermen Selling Their Catch

Lucas Smout II (Flemish, 1671-1713)

A Coastal Landscape With Travellers and Fishermen Selling Their Catch

oil on canvas (relined)
signed L.Smout
canvas dimensions 12.99 x 16.14 inches (33 x 41 cm)
frame 15.74 x 19.29 inches (40 x 49 cm)

Lucas Smout the Younger was a Flemish painter of coastal and country scenes who was active in Antwerp. He was born in Antwerp as the youngest child of the painter and art dealer Lucas Smout the Elder and Anna Maria Tijssens. His father had studied under Artus Wolffort and was a figure painter. His brother Dominicus (or Domien) became a genre painter, while two of his sisters married painters. His mother was a member of the prominent Tijssens or Tyssens family of artists in Antwerp.

Smout was active in Antwerp throughout his career but must have visited the Dutch Republic since he painted a few views of Scheveningen beach, where we also think this painting is executed (compare with The Beach of Scheveningen at Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp)

Like his master Hendrik van Minderhout, Lucas Smout specialized mainly in marine views, which the populated with many ships and figures.

This work is typical of Smout's busy compositions: it includes many groups of people and a wide range of activities taking place on the beach, such as a large group of figures pulling a fishing boat back to the water, some figures selling freshly caught fish, a lonely dog running between the busy place.

Smout was not very productive as he suffered from gout, which affected his hands, which may be why only a few works by his hand are known. So here is a rare opportunity to buy a painting by this talented artist from the late 1600s.