Countryside on an autumn morning: two men sawing a tree; a man holding up a bird-net; a windmill; and a bridge over a stream. Engraving by S. à Bolswert after Sir P.P. Rubens.

The painting is described by Adler as follows (left and right have to be reversed for the engraving): "[...] In the immediate foreground, almost parallel to the picture plane, a road runs from right to left, where it reaches uneven ground on which trees are growing; here it bends into the distance and disappears at the left edge of the picture, behind a large rectangular bird-trap which is stretched across it and attached to trees on either side. In the left lower corner, dissolved into specks by the morning light, are the scarcely recognizable, manneristic figures of two women (one of them seen from behind), half cut off by the lower edge of the picture, and of a man sitting with them under low bushes in sunken ground. One of the women is pointing up to the bird-trap. To the right, on the other side of the bend in the road, a man crouches on a shady concave bank; he is doing his best to be invisible, and holds the release cord of the snare in his hand. A little further right, in the centre of the picture, the roadside is flat and the eye falls directly on a river swathed in mist and overgrown with reeds near the shore, with a solitary boat resting on it.

"In the middle distance a stone bridge with a semi-elliptical arch is seen through the mist. Directly above, the pale yellow disc of the sun shines through the vapours drifting to the right. A village church and some trees loom in the background through the mist, which thickens as it approaches the horizon. Nearer the spectator, on a mound to the right of the bridge, is a square Flemish windmill the curved sails of which, facing obliquely into the distance, seem to scoop up the light that flickers feebly through the mist and project it towards the spectator. To the right of the windmill is a cart drawn by a donkey and laden with sacks. A man is carrying a full sack from the mill down a flight of wooden steps.

"On the road in the foreground, where it is open on the river side, two men are kneeling and sawing at a tree-trunk, the angle of which leads the eye into the distance. The foreshortened tree-trunk, the bridge and the sun are in a single vertical line. Sunlight is reflected through the arch. The mists suggest autumn, and the bird-catching motif points to October."--Adler, loc. cit.

There are differences between the painting and the engraving. The morning mist is conspicuous in the painting, not in the engraving. The composition on all four sides is curtailed in the painting. The woman pointing upwards is clearly pointing in the engraving at three gamebirds that are flying near the trap

Antverpiae [Antwerp] : Aegidius Hendricx excudit, [between 1638? and 1659?]

1 print : engraving ; platemark 32.8 x 47 cm

Illustri viro Michaeli Blondo sacrae regiae Suecorum majestatis ad serenissimum Magnae Britaniae regem prolegato, artis sculptoriae omnisque artificiosae elegantiae amatori, archetypum possidenti hujus imaginis quam illi Aegidius Hendricx L.M.D.C.Q. Pet. Paul. Rubens pinxit. S. à Bolswert sculpsit

Wolfgang Adler, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. XVIII, Landscapes and hunting scenes; part I: Landscapes, London 1982, no. 67 ("Landscape with a shepherd and his flock"), pp. 179-181

Wellcome Collection 3063571i

The dedicatee Michel Le Blond or Le Blon was an engraver and designer of ornaments, active in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Italy and London. At the court of King Charles I in London he was a representative of the Swedish court (King Gustavus Adolphus if in 1632 or before, Queen Christina if in 1632 and later)

After a painting by Rubens in the Musée du Louvre--Adler, loc. cit.