Bartholomeus Breenbergh was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and etcher belonging to the first generation of Dutch Italianates; northern artists who travelled to Italy in the 1620s and were inspired by the southern landscape. Born in Deventer in 1598, his earliest works reveal the stylistic influence of the Pre-Rembrandtists, suggesting that he received his initial artistic training in Amsterdam. In late 1619, Breenbergh arrived in Rome, where he was to be active for the next decade. The artist's work of this period demonstrates the influence other Northern painters working in Rome, particularly Paul Bril and Cornelius van Poelenburch. Like them, Breenbergh's landscapes were directly inspired by nature and concentrated on the representation of light and space. During his stay in Italy, Breenbergh also made numerous drawings of Rome and its environs; motifs that he continued to assimilate repeatedly into his paintings following his return to Holland in 1629.

The early 1630s were the most productive period of Breenbergh’s career, during which his style and choice of subject matter evolved under the renewed influence of the Pre-Rembrandtists, particuarly Pieter Lastman. Breenbergh began to introduce more biblical and mythological figures into his landscapes, which became larger and more complex.  

This landscape most likely dates to Breenbergh's last years in Italy or immediately after his return to Holland. It is compositionally similar to his largest known work, Death of the Disobedient Prophet (1630, sold Sotheby's 4 July 1956, lot 85; untraced) although it is more immediately comparable to smaller works of the same period, including Landscape with Playing Satyr Children and Goats (c.1625, Ham House) and his landscape in the Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.

This picture bears Charles I's 'CR' brand on the reverse; however, it cannot be identified with certainty in Abraham van der Doort's 1639 inventory of King's pictures. It is known that Charles I owned a number of paintings by Breenbergh and granted the artist an annuity of £60, beginning on the 25 March I633 (PRO, SO, 3/10, unnumbered); though nothing is known of his time in England. The picture can plausibly be associated with one of two paintings in the records of the sale of the King's goods; no.68 'Breenbergh, Landscape with little figures' or no.97 'Breenbergh, Landscape'. At least two landscapes attributed to Breenbergh were recovered at the Restoration and this painting was in store at Whitehall Palace by 1666.