Jan Breughel the Younger

Acquired by the present owner on the Paris art market, circa 1990.

The stable support has been cradled to the reverse. The paint surface is secure and in good condition if a little thin in the darks of the background. There are two retouched, old hairline cracks in the panel one of approx. 7 cm upper left running in from the left edge and other of approx. 10 cm upper right about the tazza still life. Inspection under UV light reveals retouching work to the darker areas of the background, foreground and basket, as well as in the red and green pigments of the still life. The rest of the still life details are largely untouched. Offered in a stained wooden northern style frame with ripple mouldings in good condition.
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The composition is known in several other versions of which at least four also appear to be autograph: one was formerly in the Aardenne collection, Dordrecht; a second formerly in the Henle collection, Duisberg; a third in the Szépmúveszéti Museum, Budapest; another sold London, Sotheby's, 14 December 2000, lot 10 (for £190,000).¹ No version is exactly the same as another and all have minor differences in the specific arrangement of the flowers. A number of other versions are known by anonymous followers of Jan Brueghel the Elder. The younger Brueghel's composition appears to combine elements from individual works by his father, such as the flower-filled tazza of the painting sold New York, Sotheby's, 26 January 2001, lot 7. Works by Jan Bruegehl the Younger exclusively representing either the tazza or the basket of flowers are also known.

This lot is accompanied by the certificate of Dr. Klaus Ertz, dated 6 March 1990, confirming the authorship of Jan Brueghel the Younger.

 

1. Respectively see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Freren 1984, pp. 450-52, no. 287, reproduced p. 451; p. 452, no. 289, reproduced; and K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, vol. III, Lingen 2008-10, p. 964, fig. 2.