A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools / Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin

by Unknown

1447. A HUNTING PARTY.

Adam Frans van der Meulen (Flemish: 1632-1694).

This painter, a native of Brussels, had a great facility in battlepieces. Some of these found their way to France, and attracted the notice of the painter Le Brun. On his recommendation Van der Meulen was invited to the French Court, and was at first employed on designs for the Gobelins tapestries. Afterwards he accompanied Louis XIV. on his campaigns, and, brush in hand, was present at all the principal sieges and battles of that monarch. These he afterwards painted for the King; he also depicted many hunting scenes and cavalcades. His works are to be seen at the Louvre and Versailles.

The present picture (signed, and dated 1662) shows us some such scene in the life of the Court. The suite is bareheaded, and it is clearly some personage of importance—possibly Louis XIV. himself—who is seated at the window of the carriage. The background of open country with blue distance is very pleasantly rendered.