Jan Brueghel the Younger

In the possession of the family of the current owners since circa 1956.

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 work on copper has been restored but there is a yellow cast to the work which does not necessarily represent the original palette of the artist. Under ultraviolet light there are a few spots of retouch in the brown horse and in the ground beneath the horses, in the reeds in the lower right and in a dot or two in the cart in the distance. While it is conceivable that there are other retouches beneath an older varnish, it is unlikely and this is a picture that could either be safely cleaned or hung as is.
"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."

The present work belongs to a popular compositional type, originated by Jan Brueghel the Elder during the first two decades of the 17th century, and subsequently taken up by his son Jan Brueghel the Younger. Travellers are here arranged in the foreground beside a group of windmills which run along a diagonally receding path. The viewer's eye is carried into the distance towards a vast open landscape, a device punctuated by the high vantage point from which the scene is viewed.

This type was repeated on numerous occasions by both artists, all with variations in detail. Perhaps the closest version, a picture given to Brueghel the Elder, was recently sold, London, Sotheby's, 26 April 2007, lot 9. That version, which appears to be the rediscovered original by Brueghel the Elder has been dated by Ertz to circa 1611 based on comparison with two similar landscapes, both signed and dated 1611: one, today in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich; the other in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (see K. Ertz and C. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625) : Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, vol. I, p. 327, cat. no. 157). In addition to the aforementioned autograph works by Brueghel the Elder, two contemporary copies of this composition are known: one in the Museo del Prado (inv. no. 1435, see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Cologne 1979, p. 167, reproduced, fig. 183, p. 598, under no. 244, and p. 521, note 160); and one in the Ulster Museum, Belfast (inv. no. 17, see Ertz 1979, op. cit., p. 598 under no. 244, and p. 521, note 160).