Jan Brueghel the Elder

Probably acquired by Max Emmanuel I, Duke of Bavaria, and Elector (Kurfürst) of the Holy Roman Empire, between 1698 and 1710;
Kurfürstliche Galerie, Munich;
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, inventory no. 5228 (and exhibited in Augsburg, Gemäldegalerie, from at least 1822 until 1912 and then at the Neues Schloß, Schleißheim, 1912-1938);
Given to the Wiener Galerie/Kunsthandel Neumann und Salzer in 1938 in exchange for another painting;
R. Dooyes collection;
His deceased sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 December 1959, lot 99, for £4,400;
With Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Dr. R. Marggraff, Katalog der k. Gemälde-Galerie in Augsburg, Munich 1869, p. 136, no. 536;
Katalog der k. Gemälde-Galerie in Augsburg, Munich 1905, p. 81, no. 436 (As 'Aus der kurf. Galerie zu München. Saal III'  = 'From the Electoral Gallery in Munich. Hall  III');
A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, Vienna/Leipzig 1906, p. 205 (as in Augsburg);
Y. Thiéry, Le Paysage flamand au XVIIe siècle, Brussels 1953, p. 177;
K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Cologne 1979, pp. 63, 66 & 621, cat. no. 378, reproduced fig 39.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This little circular painting is set into a box with the back covered, but is presumably on a fine oak panel, apparently perfectly flat with no sign of flaking, past or present. There is a tiny chip at the extreme upper left edge, and a little retouching around the edges in the sky, with occasional minute touches on the craquelure in the sky, but these are entirely cosmetic and the craquelure is not a problem, aesthetically or structurally. Another little possible retouching near the base edge could be brown old varnish. The extraordinarily perfect condition of the fluent brushwork throughout is exemplary. The rich unworn surface in saturated colour with threads of fine impasto along each minute stroke from the carefully prepared oil, with each delicate detail, is immaculately preserved, down to the finest lines of the horse's reins or hatched modelling and foreground grasses. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is a rare late work by Jan Brueghel the Elder, painted just three years prior to his death in 1625. The subject, a group of heavily laden travellers journeying through an extensive and panoramic landscape, is one often repeated by Brueghel and exists perhaps most famously in his Windmill with travellers in Munich, Alte Pinakothek.¹  The present work offers a rare close-up of figures and horses so that Brueghel's exceptional skill with the small brush and his minute attention to detail is clearly apparent.

Brueghel's work was in very high demand during his lifetime and indeed he spent the last 17 years of his life as court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, the Habsburg regents of the Netherlands, in Brussels. Further commissions came from Emperor Rudolph II and Sigismund III of Poland. Unlike his brother Pieter the Younger, Jan did not merely imitate his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder; thanks to the influence of Gillis van Coninxloo III Jan broke away from his father's tradition and promoted a style of landscape painting that would be imitated for well over a hundred years, culminating in the 18th century with the work of Karel Beschey, Theobold Michau and Josef Bredael.

A note on the provenance: this picture formed part of the collection of the Electors (Kurfürst) of Bavaria and, along with the majority of Flemish pictures in that collection, it was probably acquired between 1698 and 1710 by Maximilian II Emmanuel who was the last Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. It is recorded in the Kurfürstliche Galerie in Munich before being transferred to the Alte Pinakothek; from there it was transferred to the Gemäldegalerie in Augsburg where it remained until 1912. The painting is first recorded in the 1822 inventory of the Augsburg Gemäldegalerie and it is probable that it hung there from the gallery's inception in 1810.

1.  See Ertz, under Literature, p. 597, reproduced p. 66, fig. 37.