(Antwerp 1601–1678),
Figures in a village with trees,
oil on panel, 40 x 52.3 cm, framed

Provenance:
South German nobility

We are grateful to Dr. Klaus Ertz, who has identified the present and hitherto unpublished painting as an autograph work by Jan Brueghel the Younger (written communication 15 February 2013).

Dr. Ertz writes: “The state of this painting can be described as excellent. There is not a single spot in which the colours are thin or rubbed; they are applied thickly and in an impasto manner, making a jewel-like, brilliant impression. The translucent glazes, applied on top of one another, are in very good condition, as are the white highlights added in a final step…”. Ertz compares the present Village Landscape to a Village Entrance with a Windmill (private collection, dated 1603) by Jan Brueghel the Elder. In this latter picture, Ertz sees the earliest “modern” village landscape. He continues: “The spectator no longer looks down onto the scene set far below, as holds true for the art of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but has – metaphorically spoken – descended into the picture’s sphere. Yet in this animated village landscape, Jan Brueghel the Younger still keeps up the distance between the spectator and the landscape depicted by choosing a slightly elevated vantage point. This composition assembles a number of developments and types: it is at the same time a village landscape, genre scene, and rendering of flat countryside, containing elements of all of these, and in my opinion is one of the most successful compositions based on the model of the father, Jan Brueghel the Elder… Today it can be said with absolute certainty that Jan the Younger was the one who continued the work of his father most intensively and on the highest level, which is most impressively illustrated by the painting to be assessed here… The brushwork is still delicate and true to detail; relying on the technical brilliance acquired in his father’s studio, the artist traces every single form – a painting of high technical quality…” In order to incorporate the present painting within Jan Brueghel the Younger’s oeuvre, Ertz compares it with the following composition: (1) Dance on a Village Road (Belgian private collection, 1625); (2) Village Road with a Canal (Staatsgalerie im Schloss Johannisburg, Aschaffenburg, 1630s); (3) Outside a Village Tavern (Gemäldegalerie Dresden, dated 16(4)1). Ertz: “In my opinion, the painting to be assessed dates from the same period as the comparative examples in terms of artistic development. Stylistic characteristics of this period include, among others, the brushwork informed by the father’s manner of painting; the careful and precise rendering of individual details; the painterly perfection that is reminiscent of the farther; and the adoption and further development of his father’s compositional approach. All of these elements suggest that the painting was executed in the 1630s…” The present painting is thus an important addition of superior quality to the complex oeuvre of Jan Brueghel the Younger.