A hawking party in an extensive landscape

Adriaen van de Velde started his early training in Amsterdam with his father Willem van de Velde (c. 1611-1693), however he soon abandoned marine painting in favour of landscapes, and trained in Haarlem with Jan Wijnants (c. 1635-1684). As is noticeable in this picture, Adriaen van de Velde was heavily influenced by the group of artists known as the 'Dutch Italianates' whose principal figures were Pieter van Laer (1599-1642⁄1654) and Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683). He never went to Italy and his 'Italianate' style therefore relies heavily on his seeing the paintings brought back from Italy by his aforementioned peers. While the flat, arid landscape of the present painting does not particularly speak of Italy, it is the warm fall of light, as well as the subject matter, that render this work distinctly 'southern'.

Due to his skill in painting figures and animals, van de Velde was frequently employed to add staffage to pictures by fellow landscape artists, including Jacob van Ruisdael (1628⁄9-1682), Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), Jan Wijnants, Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712) and Frederik de Moucheron (1667-1744).