Joos de Momper Antwerp 1564 - 1635, and Jan Breughel the Younger

In the present owner's family in Vienna, by whom offered for sale with Galerie Frölich, Vienna, 1938 (unsold);
Thence by descent to the present owner.

K. Boström, "Ar Stormen verligen en Breughel?", in Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, 1951, p. 5, reproduced fig. 4;
K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jüngere (1564-1635). Die Gemälde mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1986, pp. 512-13, cat. no. 165, reproduced p. 267, fig. 298.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is cradled. There are visible horizontal raised splits and a repaired join; old, clumsy and excessive restoration can be detected along these ridges as well as to areas of the rocky backdrop where the paint wash considered thin. The green to the row of fir trees in the mid ground is contemporary restoration. Much of the paint texture and impasto are well preserved and the tonal quality would improve with the removal of the varnish."
"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 rugged, mountainous landscape is an excellent example of De Momper's distinctive style which made him one of the leading exponents of the genre of landscape painting in the Netherlands at the outset of the 17th century. De Momper had in fact probably begun to paint landscapes as early as 1581 as in that year he was registered as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke by his father. Soon afterwards De Momper travelled to Italy and it was on this trip, when crossing the Alps, that he presumably acquired his fascination with the depiction of mountains and cliff faces, paintings which constitute the vast majority of his oeuvre which itself consists of over five hundred works.

The staffage in this painting is the work of Jan Brueghel the Younger and it is likely that it was executed prior to Brueghel's departure for Rome in 1622. Certainly the landscape is consistent with De Momper's output circa 1620. De Momper already enjoyed a close working relationship with the Brueghel workshop: Jan Brueghel the Elder, whom he considered a personal friend, had contributed figures to his landscapes for at least a decade¹ and De Momper evidently continued this close relationship with the younger Brueghel. Numerous examples of their collaborations are similarly dated by Ertz to circa 1620 or to the beginning of the following decade, after Brueghel's return from Italy.²

1. See, for example, K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Cologne 1979, p. 470, no. 832.
2. See, for example, Ertz, under Literature, pp. 555, 572-3, nos. 335, 378-380.