Pieter Brueghel the Younger

A European private collection from circa 1980 until recently.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This large and impressive work has quite recently been restored and could be hung as is. The numerous figures, all of the details that are delineated around the figures and the architecture are all very strongly preserved. The weakness to the painting, if there is one, is in the thin transparent browns and the very dark color depicting the interior of the manger. Both of these warm browns of the camels in the upper right and the ground on which they walk is slightly weakened and there are restorations here and there which are faintly visible in the dark interior of the manger. The lighter colors of the building, the details of the figures and the bulk of the remainder of the picture is in very healthy state. Where it exists, the restoration is concise. The signature in the lower center beneath the incense has been tested and although the brown color surrounding the signature is restored, the letters of the signature have not been strengthened and we are confident that this inscription is original. Overall the condition is very good and except for a small retouching below the signature in the lower center, the painting could be hung as is.
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In a certificate dated March 2, 2009, which accompanies this lot, Dr. Klaus Ertz confirms this painting to be a work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

The appearance of this unpublished Adoration of the Magi, is an important addition to the oeuvre of Pieter Brueghel the Younger.  The subject was extremely popular, but of the 21 or 23 versions of this composition that Klaus Ertz lists in his catalogue raisonné of the artist, until now only the painting in the Philadelphia Musuem of Art (inv. no. 83-73) has been universally accepted as autograph.¹  The Philadephia picture is painted in oil on canvas and is of such high quality that it was considered the work of Pieter Breugel the Elder until 1965.²  The present painting is on panel and predates the Philadelphia work.  This is clear from the signature which is spelled BRVEGHEL; according to Ertz , Brueghel the Younger used this form of his signature only until 1616, at which time he reversed the "u" and the first "e".  A recent cleaning revealed that the original signature in the Philadelphia painting reads P. BREVGHEL, firmly dating it after 1616.

As in the case of so many of Pieter Brueghel's pictures, the Adoration of the Magi derives from a composition by his father.  Here the prototype is generally thought to be a painting in tempera on linen in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.  Most commentators have accepted it as an original work by Breugel the Elder datable to 1555-57, but it is difficult to evaluate because it is in fragile condition and has suffered from water damage.³  The number of later versions of the composition attest to its popularity in the seventeenth century, but they are of varying quality and most do not capture the energy of the original. 

In contrast to the majority of the school pictures and the only other autograph version by Brueghel the Younger, the present work is painted on panel rather than canvas.  The artist's fine brush work on the smoother surface of the wood creates a glittering sense of movement in the dense crowd, and his rich palette pulls the complicated scene together.  The composition itself is quite old-fashioned for the period, with its high viewpoint and elevated horizon line, but unlike the other great Brueghelian Adoration, which is set in a snowy village, a version of which is in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (inv. no. 9132), the central moment of the action is not tucked away in the corner of the picture.  Here the Virgin and Child are the focus of all attention and action. The Magi in their long, bright robes seem larger than the attendants and on-lookers, and our eye follows them as they approach the Holy Family from both left and right.  Behind them the villagers and their animals crowd in to get just a glimpse of the great event, while in the distance we see vignettes of the wonderfully Flemish Holy Land.

1.  K. Ertz,  Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38).  Die Gemälde mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen 1988-2000, vol I, pp. 317-320 lists 23 paintings, but states that at least two may be duplicates.
2.  See P. C. Sutton, Northern European Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, From the Sixteenth through the Nineteen Century, Philadephia 1990, p. 42.
3.  K. Ertz, Op. cit. pp. 308 and 317.
4.  Ibid., p. 306.