David Vinckboons (Mechelen 1576 - before 1633 Amsterdam) A wooded landscape with the Adoration of the Magi, Saint John the Baptist preaching to the Masses and the Baptism of Christ, oil on panel, 41 x 81 cm, framed ÜBERLANGTEXT Provenance: Collection Major Nigel Capel Cure (1908-2004), Badger Hall, Wolverton; sale, Christie’s, London, 9 November 1945, lot 28 (as Frans Francken II); Collection Mrs. Braunsberg; sale, Christie’s, London, 1 April 1955, lot 63 (as Vinckboons); Collection E. Wolff, New York; sale, Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, 17 June 1988, lot 844; sale, Christie’s, London, 5 December 2012, lot 112 (as attributed to David Vinckboons); Private European Collection Literature: K. Ertz, C. Nitze-Ertz, David Vinckboons, Lingen 2016, p. 329, no. 46 David Vinckboons was born into a family of artists in Malines in 1576. His grandfather Gillis had settled there in 1489 and had opened a studio of painting in watercolour on canvas – a Malines specialty continued by his son Philip (1545–1601). Due to the political and religious situation of the day, Philip moved his business to Antwerp in 1579, where he is recorded from 1580 until 1586. As the situation deteriorated for the reformed community to which the Vinckboons belonged, in late 1586 Philip travelled to the North with 185 other Antwerp families under safe conduct granted by the Duke of Leicester. Here he first settled in Middelburg and from 1591 in Amsterdam. With other religious immigrants from the South, such as Gillis van Coninxloo and Hans Bol, the Vinckboons family formed a tight artistic community in Amsterdam and continued their businesses as before. Thus, David received his training from his father and first specialised in paintings in watercolour on canvas, such as his forebears had done. Later he took up painting in oil, mostly on smaller formats, which Karel van Mander praises as having considerable merit. His compositions must have been popular since they were frequently engraved.