This is your opportunity to own a monumental size, original attributed to a 17th Century Dutch master Jan Dirksz Both(1615-1652). This piece absolutely is of the same medium, subject, complexity, and style as used by the Dutch master. Most of Both's sold pieces are without signature as this one does not have a signature. This gorgeous landscape is in a very old, solid, hand hewed frame. The brass plaque mounted to the frame has Both's name and the site location. We absolutely believe this piece was painted by Both. This spectacular Italian landscape is of the Vale of Avoca. Both's pastoral landscapes, drenched in a warm italianate light and depicting the peaceful observation of a farmer and Oxcart in the forest and wildlife along a placid brook, are inconceivable without the influence of Claude Lorrain whom the artist met in Rome as a young man of about twenty in circa 1637. Both went to Rome to join his brother Andries, but soon after his arrival he was propelled into the spotlight when he collaborated with Claude on two large series of landscapes for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, commissioned by Don Manuel de Moura, Marqués de Castel Rodrigo and ambassador to Philip IV, the first from 1638-39 and the second from 1640-41. Jan and Andries left Rome in 1641, travelling via Venice where Andries tragically drowned in a canal. Jan is believed to have returned home alone to Utrecht in the same year. This work is typical of Both's landscapes of the mid-1640s. Medium: Oil on canvas. Size: 51 1/2 x 55 1/2 inches. Condition: Very good overall of the recto and verso with no visible repairs or inpainting! There is one tiny drip of white paint on the recto(Please see pics). The painting would probably brighten up and show detail better with a light cleaning and may possibly reveal a signature. Provenance: This gorgeous painting has been hanging in an 1860 Antebellum mansion in Milledgeville, Georgia since as early as the 1940's when our consignor's wealthy and affluent, great, great, aunt bought the home. It is not known how it was initially acquired. See the pic of the home in our picture selection. Here is a link to a smaller Both Italian landscape sold at Sotheby's for $120,000 https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/important-old-master-paintings-and-european-works-of-art-including-property-of-the-albright-knox-art-gallery-n08321/lot.211.html Here is a link to a much smaller Both that sold for $109,000 https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/important-old-master-paintings-including-european-works-of-art-n08404/lot.13.html Here is a link to a smaller Both painting that sold for $227,000 at Sothebys. https://www.askart.com/auction_records/Jan_Dirksz_Both/11018109/Jan_Dirksz_Both.aspx?lot=586815 One of the most scenic spots in County Wicklow is the Vale of Avoca, a darkly wooded valley that begins where the Rivers Avonbeg and Avonmore come together to form the River Avoca. The aptly named Meeting of the Waters was made famous by Thomas Moore's 1808 poem of the same name. The tiny village of Avoca (Abhóca in Irish) is best known as the birthplace of the superstar of all Irish cottage industries, Avoca Handweavers. Jan Dirksz Both. Born: 1615/18 - Utrecht, Holland. Died: 1652 - Utrecht, Holland. Known for: Landscape and figure painting, drawing, etching. Jan Both was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher, who made an important contribution to the development of Dutch Italianate landscape painting. His training is uncertain, although Abraham Bloemaert and Gerrit van Honthorst have been suggested as teachers. By 1638 Jan had joined his brother Andries in Rome where, a year later, he collaborated with Herman van Swanevelt and Claude Lorrain on a project for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. Certainly by 1646 Jan had returned to Utrecht, where he refined further his expansive, imaginary landscapes drenched with a Mediterranean golden light. In Landscape with Bandits Leading Prisoners (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) the sandy road makes a sweeping diagonal from the left. Touches of realism in the down-to-earth figures and detailed vegetation of the foreground contrast with the idyllic golden distance. Occasionally Both peoples his landscapes with religious or mythological figures as in Judgement of Paris (London, National Gallery) where the figures were painted by a fellow Utrecht artist, Cornelis van Poelenburch. Jan's brother Andries (c.1612-41), who specialized in peasant scenes, died in Venice on their return to Utrecht. Collections. Both is represented in the following collections: Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, UK; Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Louvre, Paris; Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; The Royal Collection, London; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia; Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York; Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford; Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, New Zealand; Courtauld Institute of Art, London; Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Norwich Museums, UK; Prado Museum, Madrid; Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas; The Wallace Collection, London; Vejle Kunstmuseum, Denmark, amongst other.