A wooded river landscape with travellers, shepherds and their flock on a path, a fortified city beyond

This landscape was formerly owned by Welbore Ellis Agar (1735-1805), the younger brother of the 1st Viscount Clifden and the elder brother of the 1st Earl of Normanton. Agar assembled a prodigious collection of Old Masters, largely acquired abroad, for the most part under the aegis of Gavin Hamilton. Among the highlights of the collection, which numbered around 130 pictures, were Raphael's Madonna of the Veil (New Jersey, Princeton University Art Museum); Poussin's Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes (Boston Museum of Fine Arts); and Van Dyck's Virgin and Child with St. Catherine of Alexandria (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), as well as several pictures by Claude. On his death, having no direct heir, he bequeathed the collection to his two illegitimate sons Emmanuel Felix and Welbore Felix, who decided to put the collection up for sale at Christie's. The auction was scheduled for 2nd-3rd May 1806, with the present work appearing as lot 26. However, before even the English copies of the catalogue were printed (only a French version exists), the brothers were approached by Lord Grosvenor with a view to an en bloc purchase. An initial price of 40,000 guineas was suggested but was negotiated down to the final figure of 30,000 guineas, which was agreed by mid-April, marking one of the largest single purchases of a picture collection transacted in this period.

The present lot was one of ten pictures given to Claude listed in John Young's Catalogue of the Pictures at Grosvenor House, 1821, one of which was sold recently at Christie's, London, 7 December 2010, lot 51. The current work was, though, subsequently downgraded, published under 'imitations' by Röthlisberger in his catalogue raisonné.