Sotheby’s is preparing to bring a rare Renaissance landscape by German painter Albrecht Altdorfer to the international auction market, with the work expected to attract bids of up to £5 million ($6.67 million). The painting, dating to approximately 1520, will be offered during the auction house’s Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction in London on December 9, 2026. Before the sale, American audiences will have an opportunity to view the painting at Sotheby’s New York exhibition, scheduled to run from November 7 through November 19.

The painting, titled A Thickly Wooded Landscape With a Rainbow Behind the Trees and a Distant Outcrop to the Right Beneath a Cloud-Laden Sky, is notable for both its historical significance and its unusually limited market availability. It depicts a densely forested environment beneath a dramatic sky, with a rainbow appearing behind the trees and a distant rocky outcrop supporting what appears to be a castle. Unlike many Renaissance paintings, which place religious narratives, historical figures or portraits at the center of the composition, this work focuses entirely on the natural environment.

The painting measures approximately 23.4 by 19.8 centimeters, or 9¼ by 7⅞ inches, making it a relatively small work. Despite its dimensions, its elaborate landscape composition offers a concentrated study of vegetation, atmospheric conditions and natural light. The Sotheby’s catalogue identifies the medium as oil on parchment, subsequently attached to a wooden panel, probably made from limewood. The artist’s monogram, AA, appears on the trunk of a larch tree toward the center-left of the composition.

Its ownership history helps explain why the painting has attracted renewed attention. The work belonged to the House of Harrach, an Austrian aristocratic family whose collection was based in Vienna. The father of the current owner acquired it from that collection in 1957. Following the purchase, the painting remained within the family’s private ownership and was eventually inherited by the present collector. It was therefore absent from public exhibitions and largely outside the attention of art historians for approximately seven decades.

Its recent emergence is particularly important because the painting was previously unknown to specialists studying Altdorfer’s work. According to The Art Newspaper, it was not included in the artist’s established catalogue raisonné before its identification. Sotheby’s is now presenting it as an original work by the Renaissance master, adding a significant painting to the documented group of his independent landscapes.

Before this discovery, only two other oil paintings by Altdorfer depicting landscapes without human figures were known. One is Landscape with a Footbridge, held by the National Gallery in London. The other, Landscape of the Danube near Regensburg, belongs to Munich’s Alte Pinakothek. Both are held in museum collections rather than circulating through the commercial art market. The newly surfaced painting therefore brings the known number of such landscapes to three.

That distinction places the Sotheby’s offering within a broader discussion of the development of landscape painting in European art. During the early sixteenth century, landscapes frequently appeared as settings for religious or historical subjects. Altdorfer was among the artists who explored the possibility of treating nature as an independent subject, giving forests, trees, mountains and atmospheric effects a central role in a painting rather than using them simply as backgrounds.

Altdorfer, who lived from approximately 1480 to 1538, spent much of his career in Regensburg, a historic city on the Danube in southern Germany. He was associated with the Danube School, a group of artists known for their expressive treatment of nature and distinctive approaches to landscape. His artistic career also extended beyond painting to drawing, printmaking, architectural work and civic responsibilities. The National Gallery describes landscape and natural plant forms as important expressive elements throughout his artistic output.

The newly surfaced painting reflects this interest in the natural environment. Its composition emphasizes the density and variety of the woodland, while the rainbow introduces a contrasting element of light and atmosphere. The distant structure provides a point of visual depth without displacing the natural setting as the dominant subject. The combination of rain-soaked vegetation, cloud cover and emerging sunlight gives the scene a sense of changing weather rather than presenting nature as a static decorative background.

The painting’s significance also extends to the economics of the Old Master market. Sotheby’s has placed an estimate of £3 million to £5 million on the work. The upper estimate translates to approximately $6.67 million, although the eventual sale price will depend on bidding and market demand. The estimate is not a guaranteed final valuation, and the auction house has acknowledged the unusual difficulty of pricing a work by an artist whose paintings have not appeared on the market for decades.

The last comparable market appearance dates to 1980, when the National Gallery acquired Altdorfer’s approximately 1520 painting Christ Taking Leave of His Mother for a reported £2.4 million. That acquisition was considered a major transaction at the time. The lengthy gap since then means that there is limited recent auction evidence against which to assess the value of the newly discovered landscape.

George Gordon, chairman of Sotheby’s Worldwide Old Masters Department, has described the discovery as an exceptionally important addition to the known body of work by a major Northern Renaissance artist. He has also indicated that the final price could exceed the published estimate and suggested that museums may be interested in acquiring the painting. Institutional interest could become an important factor as the December sale approaches, particularly because the two previously known comparable landscapes are already held in major public collections.

The upcoming New York exhibition gives the sale an important American dimension. From November 7 through November 19, visitors will be able to see the painting before it travels to London. This preview places the work before American collectors, museum professionals, art historians and other interested members of the public ahead of the international bidding process. For audiences who may not have an opportunity to travel to the London auction, the New York presentation offers a chance to examine the newly surfaced Renaissance work in person.

After its New York appearance, Sotheby’s will exhibit the painting in London from December 4 through December 9, with the auction scheduled for the final day. The work will form part of the house’s Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, bringing it into a sale focused on historically significant European paintings.

The December auction will ultimately establish how collectors value this rare example of Altdorfer’s landscape painting in the contemporary market. Its significance, however, extends beyond its potential price. The work offers an opportunity to expand the documented history of a major Renaissance artist, reconsider the development of independent landscape painting and bring a previously private object into wider public view. Whether it reaches or exceeds its $6.67 million equivalent high estimate, its appearance at Sotheby’s represents an unusually important moment for the study and collecting of Northern Renaissance art.