Abel GRIMMER (Antwerp, 1570 - 1619) River landscape with Christ and the Emmaus pilgrims Oil on oak panel, parqueted (Restorations) River landscape with Christ and the pilgrims of Emmaus, oil on oak panel, by A. Grimmer 19.88 x 30.31 in. 50.5 x 77 cm Provenance: Rémy de Polignac Collection, Bayonne A pupil of his father Jacob, Abel Grimmer became a master in 1592 and continued his father's Antwerp business, but not without giving his own distinctive touch to his work. As with the Brueghels, the production of paintings was a family affair. As his clientele's tastes changed and demand grew, Abel gradually moved away from mannerism and its meticulousness towards a stylisation and simplification that has sometimes been described as naïve, but which is only apparently so, given the skill with which the compositions are constructed and the motifs are executed. The sky, water, fields and stone buildings are scattered throughout his paintings, forming large areas of solid colours subtly shaded around or into which lively little figures are integrated. The space given over to the sky and the landscape offers the viewer a glimpse of the Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century. Green plains with dogs, sheep and cows, paths leading to a peaceful village and an idealised lake in the background. As an accomplished landscape painter, Abel Grimmer perfectly masters the effects of atmosphere and perspective, using them to create an ambitious composition in which the religious subject is merely a pretext for praising nature. Abel GRIMMER (Antwerp, 1570 - 1619) 50.5 x 77 cm A pupil of his father Jacob, Abel Grimmer became a master in 1592 and continued his father's Antwerp business, but not without giving his own distinctive touch to his work. As with the Brueghels, the production of paintings was a family affair. As his clientele's tastes changed and demand grew, Abel gradually moved away from mannerism and its meticulousness towards a stylisation and simplification that has sometimes been described as naïve, but which is only apparently so, given the skill with which the compositions are constructed and the motifs are executed. The sky, water, fields and stone buildings are scattered throughout his paintings, forming large areas of solid colours subtly shaded around or into which lively little figures are integrated. The space given over to the sky and the landscape offers the viewer a glimpse of the Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century. Green plains with dogs, sheep and cows, paths leading to a peaceful village and an idealised lake in the background. As an accomplished landscape painter, Abel Grimmer perfectly masters the effects of atmosphere and perspective, using them to create an ambitious composition in which the religious subject is merely a pretext for praising nature.