On 1 March 1644, Jan Lievens is recorded as having rented a room in the Amsterdam house of Jan Miense Molenaer. The circumstances prompting this document, however, are less than collegial: Lievens, having vacated the room, was appearing in court to reclaim an unfinished landscape that remained in his host's residence. Molenaer testified that he had purchased the pigments and panel that Lievens had used for the picture, and that he therefore had rightful claim to the painting. The court document specifies that the notary ordered Lievens to pay Molenaer 13 guilders in exchange for his painting. Given the lack of subsequent proceedings, Lievens must have paid his debt and received the picture. Unfortunately, the identification of the painting in dispute has been lost. For an artist who was living in Antwerp less than two months earlier, this incident offers great insight into Lievens's choices as he entered the Amsterdam market. It is remarkable that one of the first paintings that he executed in his new city of residence was a landscape, particularly as he had made a reputation for himself as a history and portrait painter, and also that the artist perceived the picture to be valuable enough to pursue in court. Furthermore, this is the earliest instance of a written reference to the artist as a painter of landscapes.

Lievens had only begun to paint independent landscapes in the late 1630s, about fifteen years after completing his apprenticeship with Pieter Lastman.