SEBASTIAAN VRANCX (1573-1647) Lot n° 10

(after) The battle between Lekkerbeetje and Braut on the heath of Vught. Panel (cradled). 160 x 125 cm (202 x 160 cm) Depicted on this exceptionally large panel is a battle during the Eighty Years' War. Gerard Abrahamsz. (1560-1600), nicknamed ‘Lekkerbeetje’, initially served under Prince Maurice of Orange (1567-1625), but defected to the Spanish side. On February 5, 1600, he was killed on Vuchterheide, near 's-Hertogenbosch, as leader of a squad of twenty-two cuirassiers, in a duel with several Dutch opponents, led by the Frenchman Charles de Bréauté. In this scene, Lekkerbeetje is lying on the ground in the lower left, fatally struck by a pistol shot from De Bréauté. In the background, we see the city of Den Bosch in the left, and Vught and a windmill on the right. Several variants of this painting exist, including a copy in the collection of the KMSKB (inv. 2568) and the Groeninge Museum (inv. 0000.GRO1364.I). Most of the paintings in this group are attributed to a follower of Sebastiaen Vrancx. The present whereabouts of the Vrancx prototype are unknown. Yet, with certainty we do know he painted such scene as the printmaker Joannes van Doetechum II (1558/62-1630) made a large engraving after the painting by Sebastiaan Vranckx in 1631 with the inscription "Sebastiaen Vrancx Inventor" (cf. a print in the Rijksmuseum collection, inv. RP-P-OB-76.973), http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.370280).