Abraham Jansz Begeyn (Dutch, 1637 to 1697)
A precocious talent, Begeyn became a member of the Leiden painters’ guild at age 18, and practiced in his native town for a dozen years. After sojourns in Amsterdam (1672), London (circa 1674), and The Hague (1681), he became court painter in Berlin in 1688, on the accession of Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg and later King of Prussia. For the Elector he executed many views of royal towns and seats, whose first-hand studies involved him in travels throughout the Prussian dominions; Begeyn’s long stay in Halberstadt, on the edge of the famous Harz Mountains, for example, may well have inspired the wild scenery of this painting, so similar to his other large decorative works for Berlin (where his premature death followed a fall from a scaffold).
Begeyn was above all a faithful exponent of the Italianate style of Nicolaes (Claes) Berchem (1620 to 1683), his teacher; and indeed a work such as the latter’s comparably-sized (55.5″ by 68.5″) Mountainous Landscape with Herders Gathering Wood of circa 1665-75 in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, prefigures many aspects of his work Monumental Mountain Landscape with an Eagle Attacking a Chamois.
Reference: “Begeyn, Abraham (Janzs.),” The Dictionary of Art (Grove, London, 1996), vol. 3, pp. 500-501.
Information courtesy of Neal Auction Company, October 2008.