Provenance:
- Christie's, London, 1.12.2005, Lot 51.
- Rademakers collection.

Jacob Abels (1803 – 1966) was born in Amsterdam. He attended the residential school in Hilversum, where he received drawing lessons from Jan van Ravenswaay and P.G. van Os, his future father-in-law. In Het Gooi he also met his contemporary B.C. Koekkoek. When he started out, Abels painted winter and summer landscapes, in which P.G. van Os then added animals. Later he concentrated fully on river landscapes in the moonlight, with which he competed with the great 17th century forerunner, Aert van der Neer. Both the Dutch and Belgian kings each purchased one of his moonlit pictures. Around 1830 he moved to The Hague with his in-laws. At the end of his life he lived in Haarlem, Anheim and Abcoude, where he died at the age of 63 (quoted from Exh. Cat. Ein romantischer Blick – Die Sammlung Rademakers, M-Museum Leuven, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, B. C. Koekkoek-Haus, Kleve, Brussels 2011, p. 137).