Denis van Alsloot (c. 1577-1626) was a Flemish painter of landscapes and genre scenes. He was born in Brussels and trained under the painter Abraham Janssens. His early paintings are mainly landscapes, but he later turned to genre scenes, which often depicted scenes of hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities. His paintings are known for their realistic depiction of people and animals, and their use of light and shadow.
Van Alsloot was a popular artist in his own time, and his work was collected by many wealthy patrons. He was also a member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. Today, Van Alsloot’s paintings can be found in many museum collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Denis van Alsloot’s mature wooded landscapes were inspired by the scenery in and around the Forêt des Soignes, near Brussels, where he was employed from 1600 as court painted to Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella. Many contain actual views of the abbeys of Cambrai and Groenendael and the building seen in the distance of the present landscape closely resembles the latter (compare, for example, the Winter landscape with a view of the Abbey of Groenendael , sold Sotheby’s, 4 July 2007, lot 23).
Alsloot particularly specialized in the effective depiction of winter scenes, where he managed to portray the wintry atmosphere to the highest perfection and let the viewer feel the bitter cold. In our landscape, the reddish evening sky contrasts with the dark branches on which individual snowflakes have fallen, while in the background the snow-covered landscape is modeled in shades of blue and gray. Like Dr. As Klaus Ertz notes, Alsloot’s painting style is made up of small, dotting brushstrokes that remain extremely precise in the details, which is in the tradition of a Lucas van Valckenborch or a Jan Brueghel the Elder. Ä. continues (see Seipl, Wilfried (ed.): The Flemish Landscape 1520-1700, exhibition cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, December 23, 2003-April 12, 2004, 2003, No. 60, p. 172).