Johann Baptiste Bouttats

[2] He was part of a group of artists who worked in 1687 for Wenzel Albert Duke of Sternberg on the decoration of the Troja Palace in Prague.

[3] Bouttats was known as a jobbing artist, turning his hand to a number of different subjects and genres and working as a painter as well as an engraver.

The range of his subjects included history, landscapes, architecture, topological panoramas, marine scenes and still lifes.

The North East Prospect of Kirkstall Abbey includes some mythological figures and animals on a cloud hovering over the scene and the title of the painting.

It is not clear whether the painting represents a specific mansion (some have suggested Huis Rijswijk in Gelderland in the Dutch Republic) or perhaps an ideal, imaginary house.

[2] Several hunting still lifes and scenes with live animals in old collections in the Czech Republic and Poland bear the signature J. Bouttats.

However, in view of the delicate hand and bright palette and the fact that all these paintings are located in Central Europe, this J. Bouttats was likely a different painter.