Lucas van Valckenborch was undoubtedly initiated in painting by his father, Martin van Valckenborch the Elder, before being admitted as a master of the guild of Malines in 1564. As a result of the religious persecutions inflicted upon sympathisers of the Reform by the troops of the Duke of Alba, he was forced to flee from his native town in 1566 to take refuge in Liège then in Aix-la-Chapelle, where he joined his brother Martin and Vredeman de Vries. He settled in Antwerp in 1576. The following year, he went to work in Brussels for Archduke Matthias, the then governor of the Netherlands. In 1581, he accompanied the latter to Austria and stayed in Vienna and Prague, also spending time in Linz and Nuremberg. As of 1593, he shared his studio in Frankfurt with his brother Martin.

Alongside his brother, who never achieved the same success, this master is amongst the greatest landscape artists of the 16th century. His concept of landscape is derived from Joachim Patenier and Pieter Breughel the Elder.

His very detailed portrayals of the seasons, village fêtes, romantic scenes and townscapes, stand out owing to the meticulous care employed in their execution and their sharpness that continues into each of the planes leading to the horizon.

These panoramic, mountainous or wooded landscapes truly invite us on a walk. With the delicacy of a miniaturist, this attentive and scrupulous observer always portrays attractive anecdotal scenes of a surprising historical accuracy, while the surrounding landscape benefits from topographical exactitude.

At the end of his life, his deep landscapes with their luminous and refined hues, bear witness to a true creative approach, never achieved by his contemporaries, that exceeds the Breughelian concept.