A rare Altdorfer landscape returns to view in London

Titled A Thickly Wooded Landscape With a Rainbow Behind the Trees and a Distant Outcrop to the Right Beneath a Cloud-Laden Sky, the work has been kept in a private Swiss collection and will be shown first at Sotheby’s New York until 19 November, then in London from 4 to 9 December ahead of the sale.

Its significance lies in the moment it represents: landscape begins to stand on its own as a subject. Before it was identified this year, only two other pure landscape oils by Altdorfer were known, including Landscape With a Footbridge at London’s National Gallery and Landscape of the Danube near Regensburg in Munich.

A painter’s eye that holds a world in a small format

What makes the picture compelling is not a story, but the way it constructs space and weather. George Gordon describes a dense woodland with no people, a clouded sky, a sun barely breaking through and a rainbow catching the light — details that show how Altdorfer shapes depth, atmosphere and visual tension in a work measuring about 23 by 20 cm.

For artists and drawing or painting enthusiasts, the rediscovery also points to Altdorfer’s craft: he began as a draughtsman and engraver before turning to landscape after a journey into the Alps. The painting shows close observation turned into something immediate and almost modern, where light, air and terrain are organised with striking economy.