Artwork
A Ford
A Ford is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Johannes Siberechts. It dates from 1665 and is held in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work portrays a woman standing beside a watercourse with a dog, elements that together evoke themes of domestic harmony and the natural environment. The scene reflects the 17th‑century Flemish interest in idyllic rural settings and the symbolic use of everyday figures to suggest virtue and stewardship.
Technique & Style
Stylistically, it belongs to the landscape genre, presenting a rural scene that includes a watercourse, a woman, and a dog as its principal motifs.
A Ford is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for seventeenth-century Flemish landscape painting. The work measures 120 cm in height by 160 cm in width, giving it a horizontal orientation suited to its landscape format. Stylistically, it belongs to the landscape genre, presenting a rural scene that includes a watercourse, a woman, and a dog as its principal motifs.
The combination of oil medium, canvas support, and pastoral landscape subject is consistent with Johannes Siberechts's practice of depicting countryside settings.
The painting is held in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp as part of the Vlaamse Kunstcollectie, where its condition and conservation history are managed by the institution.
History & Provenance
The painting is dated 1665 and attributed to Johannes Siberechts. It entered the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) as inventory number 886, where it remains held by the Vlaamse Kunstcollectie. The work is recorded in the museum’s holdings with dimensions of 120 cm in height and 160 cm in width, and is classified within the landscape genre.
The painting A Ford by Johannes Siberechts is held in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, which is part of the Vlaamse Kunstcollectie. Within this institution, the work is assigned the inventory number KMSKA 886. Created in 1665, the oil-on-canvas landscape measures 120 cm in height and 160 cm in width.
The provided sources do not contain information regarding specific exhibitions of this work or a detailed provenance chain beyond its current institutional holding.
Overview
Created in 1665 by the Flemish artist Johannes Siberechts, A Ford is an oil painting that portrays a quiet rural scene centered on a shallow watercourse. The composition features two women engaged in domestic tasks, a dog, and surrounding vegetation, rendered with a calm, naturalistic atmosphere characteristic of mid‑seventeenth‑century landscape painting.
Context
The painting belongs to the Dutch Golden Age, a period when artists across the Low Countries turned their attention to genre scenes and realistic portrayals of rural life. Siberechts’ focus on laborers and natural settings aligns with contemporary interests in documenting everyday activities and the surrounding landscape.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jan Siberechts (1627–1703) was a Flemish landscape painter who, after a successful career in Antwerp, emigrated in the latter part of his life to England.
