This painting entered the Museum as an original work by Herman van Swanevelt and as companion piece to Landscape with Hermit preaching (P5121), an attribution maintained in all subsequent catalogues and supported by Gerstenberg (1923), Waddingham (1964), Valdivieso (1973), Burke (1976), Barghahn (1986), Galera Mendoza (2001) and Steland (forthcoming). Barghahn misidentifies this landscape as entry no. 194 in the 1701 inventory of the Palace of the Buen Retiro, and this is also reported in the last general inventory of the Museum (1990).

The description provided in that inventory entry relates to Landscape with Wayfarers, Boy and Dog (P2140). The present work should be identified with a different entry in the same inventory (Fernández Bayton 1981 [196)].

The gentle light of dusk -the best time of day for fishing- illuminates the background and, filtering through the trees on the right, the small waterfall and the family fishing in the left foreground, leaving the rest in shadow.

The handling of the leaves of the tree in the foreground and the water is typical of Van Swanevelt. The mountain face on the left is very similar to the one on the right behind the rocks in Landscape with Carthusian (Saint Bruno)? (P2064). However, the representation of the leaves of the tree in the mid-ground is similar to that found in some of Jan Both`s drawings. Moreover, the rock face on the left appears in a drawing by Both that also features a meandering river at its base.

The X-ray image reveals the same manner of setting aside space for the foreground tree as in Van Swanevelt`s horizontal landscapes. However, the execution of the tree in the mid-ground, the vegetation covering the mountain face on the right and the contour of light that outlines this rock face and the background mountains suggest the possible collaboration of Jan Both. The figure type is characteristic of Van Swanevelt. The X-ray image shows that they are superimposed over the landscape. Steland links them to some of the characters that appear in the landscapes by Van Swanevelt in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 332).