Landscape with a donkey driver

Van der Stock employs a restrained palette and soft transitions to render the rolling terrain and atmospheric sky. Light is diffused rather than sharply contrasted, creating a gentle sense of depth. Trees and hills are rendered with loose, observational brushwork, typical of regional landscape traditions that prioritized mood over precise topography.

The painting has been in the collection of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin since at least the 19th century. Its attribution to van der Stock is supported by stylistic parallels to his other known works and documented activity in Brussels during the mid-17th century. No significant alterations or reworkings are recorded in its history.

Created during the Dutch Golden Age, this work aligns with a broader trend of landscape painting that valued quiet observation over mythological or religious themes. While Dutch artists often emphasized vast horizons, van der Stock’s focus on the Sonian Forest reflects a localized, intimate approach to nature, rooted in the immediate environment of Brussels.

Van der Stock’s oeuvre remains relatively obscure outside specialist circles, but his paintings contribute to the understanding of regional Flemish landscape practice. *Landscape with a donkey driver* exemplifies a quiet, unidealized vision of rural life that contrasts with the more dramatic compositions of his contemporaries, preserving a modest yet enduring record of 17th-century countryside.