Follower of Pieter Balten

The actual painting is softer and less yellow in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The single panel had been laid down on another thick modern panel (marouflaged). There's a thin repaired horizontal split running above the lower edge. There's a minor tendency towards flaking, but otherwise, no damages are apparent. Some minor scattered retouchings can be observed in the background, but the figures appear nicely preserved. The paint surface is under a dirty varnish layer. Inspection under UV light is partially impeded by the dirty varnish layer, but does reveal some additional tiny scattered retouchings. Offered in a decorative gilt plaster and wood frame in good condition.
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This painting, both in size and composition, is almost exactly similar to a work recorded in a Dutch private collection in 1994 that was cautiously attributed to Pieter Balten by Marlier in 1969, because of its PB monogram. This attribution was followed by Ertz in 2000.¹

1. See G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels 1969, p. 330, cat. no. 2, fig. 196, and K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38), Lingen 2000, vol. I, pp. 529, 536, cat. no. A595, reproduced p. 530, fig. 400.