Lot No. 562 #


Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel II


Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel II - Old Master Paintings

Joos de Momper (Antwerp 1564–1635) and Jan Brueghel II (Antwerp 1601–1678)
A wide river landscape with travelling merchants and wayfarers resting outside a village,
oil on canvas, 73 x 106 cm, framed

We are grateful to Dr. Klaus Ertz for confirming the authenticity of the present work after examination of the original. An extensive certificate is available (January 2014).

From a raised vantage point, which, however, as Dr. Ertz points out in his certificate, is already far removed from that of the “world landscape perspective” of earlier Flemish compositions by Pieter Brueghel or Lucas Valkenborch, the spectator’s eye beholds serene and peaceful scenery. In a vast landscape, travellers move along a road in various ways. On the left appears a junction with a small chapel. Brueghel has rendered the travellers with a technical refinement and keen sense of sensitive observation that is characteristic of his art. In order to entertain the spectator, he has developed diverse forms of interaction among the individual groups, so that this picture almost gives the impression of a genre scene: market women resting in front of the chapel, a loaded mule encouraged to proceed, and elegantly dressed horsemen conversing with a tattered traveller. This combination of landscape and narrative staffage is typical of the Brueghel family and accounts for the charm of these pictures.

Joos de Momper painted the wide panorama, to which Brueghel added the scenes of travellers. As Dr. Ertz remarks, the landscape complies with the best works from the artist’s mature period. As to the date of execution of Momper’s landscape, Ertz writes: “Two elements of style are crucial here, namely the pronounced painterly character of Momper’s portion on the one hand, achieved by the free, loose brushwork, which cannot be found in his early and middle periods, and, on the other hand, the new colour scheme [...] later on, the division into three colours was replaced by a two-colour scheme, with the middle ground assigned either to the foreground or to the background. In the present painting, the bright yellow tones on the left – largely substituting the usual greens – seem to blend in with the blue background on the right and with the light-coloured blue of the sky that arches over the entire landscape [...] Momper’s broad brush, generously sweeping across the canvas, the streaky trails of the roads and sky, the delicate outlines applied with a pointed brush, and the white highlights in the treetops – all these are characteristic features of the landscape painter Joos de Momper the Younger’s art in general and occur in works from his late period. The staffage painted by Jan Brueghel the Younger still imitates the manner and style of his father and fits in with the picture’s late date of execution. It was only from the mid-1630s on that Jan the Younger detached himself from his great example and began painting more autonomous compositions [...]”

Ertz compares the present painting to the following joint compositions by Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel II:
(1) Summer Landscape with Corn Harvest (sale, Koller, Zurich, 1978, late 1620s);
(2) Inn near a Country Road (private collection, 1620s);
(3) Vast Landscape with a Village Road (New York, Guttmann Galleries, late 1620s);
(4) Wide Landscape with a Mill (sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 26 March 1973, no. 29, c. 1620);
(5) Wide Hilly Landscape with a Group of Horses (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, c. 1630)

On the basis of these comparisons, Ertz dates the present painting to the late 1620s. In this example of a collaboration between Joos de Mompers and Jan Brueghel II, the two artists succeeded in combining the landscape approach to the Late Mannerist panorama with a more contemporary figure style that already anticipated the art of the second half of the 17th century.

Specialist: Dr. Alexander Strasoldo Dr. Alexander Strasoldo
+43-1-515 60-556

alexander.strasoldo@dorotheum.at

09.04.2014 - 18:00

Realized price: **
EUR 154,770.-
Estimate:
EUR 180,000.- to EUR 250,000.-

Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel II


Joos de Momper (Antwerp 1564–1635) and Jan Brueghel II (Antwerp 1601–1678)
A wide river landscape with travelling merchants and wayfarers resting outside a village,
oil on canvas, 73 x 106 cm, framed

We are grateful to Dr. Klaus Ertz for confirming the authenticity of the present work after examination of the original. An extensive certificate is available (January 2014).

From a raised vantage point, which, however, as Dr. Ertz points out in his certificate, is already far removed from that of the “world landscape perspective” of earlier Flemish compositions by Pieter Brueghel or Lucas Valkenborch, the spectator’s eye beholds serene and peaceful scenery. In a vast landscape, travellers move along a road in various ways. On the left appears a junction with a small chapel. Brueghel has rendered the travellers with a technical refinement and keen sense of sensitive observation that is characteristic of his art. In order to entertain the spectator, he has developed diverse forms of interaction among the individual groups, so that this picture almost gives the impression of a genre scene: market women resting in front of the chapel, a loaded mule encouraged to proceed, and elegantly dressed horsemen conversing with a tattered traveller. This combination of landscape and narrative staffage is typical of the Brueghel family and accounts for the charm of these pictures.

Joos de Momper painted the wide panorama, to which Brueghel added the scenes of travellers. As Dr. Ertz remarks, the landscape complies with the best works from the artist’s mature period. As to the date of execution of Momper’s landscape, Ertz writes: “Two elements of style are crucial here, namely the pronounced painterly character of Momper’s portion on the one hand, achieved by the free, loose brushwork, which cannot be found in his early and middle periods, and, on the other hand, the new colour scheme [...] later on, the division into three colours was replaced by a two-colour scheme, with the middle ground assigned either to the foreground or to the background. In the present painting, the bright yellow tones on the left – largely substituting the usual greens – seem to blend in with the blue background on the right and with the light-coloured blue of the sky that arches over the entire landscape [...] Momper’s broad brush, generously sweeping across the canvas, the streaky trails of the roads and sky, the delicate outlines applied with a pointed brush, and the white highlights in the treetops – all these are characteristic features of the landscape painter Joos de Momper the Younger’s art in general and occur in works from his late period. The staffage painted by Jan Brueghel the Younger still imitates the manner and style of his father and fits in with the picture’s late date of execution. It was only from the mid-1630s on that Jan the Younger detached himself from his great example and began painting more autonomous compositions [...]”

Ertz compares the present painting to the following joint compositions by Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel II:
(1) Summer Landscape with Corn Harvest (sale, Koller, Zurich, 1978, late 1620s);
(2) Inn near a Country Road (private collection, 1620s);
(3) Vast Landscape with a Village Road (New York, Guttmann Galleries, late 1620s);
(4) Wide Landscape with a Mill (sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 26 March 1973, no. 29, c. 1620);
(5) Wide Hilly Landscape with a Group of Horses (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, c. 1630)

On the basis of these comparisons, Ertz dates the present painting to the late 1620s. In this example of a collaboration between Joos de Mompers and Jan Brueghel II, the two artists succeeded in combining the landscape approach to the Late Mannerist panorama with a more contemporary figure style that already anticipated the art of the second half of the 17th century.

Specialist: Dr. Alexander Strasoldo Dr. Alexander Strasoldo
+43-1-515 60-556

alexander.strasoldo@dorotheum.at


Buyers hotline Mon.-Fri.: 10.00am - 5.00pm
old.masters@dorotheum.at

+43 1 515 60 403
Auction: Old Master Paintings
Auction type: Saleroom auction
Date: 09.04.2014 - 18:00
Location: Vienna | Palais Dorotheum
Exhibition: 29.03. - 09.04.2014


** Purchase price incl. charges and taxes(Country of delivery: Austria)

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