Jacob Savery I

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 10 December 1986, lot 56;
There purchased by the present owner. 

Amsterdam, Kunsthandel P. de Boer, De Helsche en de Fluwelen Brueghel, 1934, no. 165. 

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 oak panel is unreinforced on the reverse. It has not been recently cleaned and would probably benefit from cleaning. This is an early and finely detailed work, but a close examination under ultraviolet light and to the naked eye does not indicate that there are any significant retouches. The panel has a 5 inch crack in the lower right and a 2 inch crack in the lower left which have received restorations. It is probably fair to say that some thinness to the paint layer in the sky can be expected, particularly in the upper sky. Some thinness can also be anticipated in the transparent browns in the house on the left and in the foreground. The details in the architecture and trees all seem to be very well preserved.
"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 composition is known in other treatments by Jacob Savery, all on panels of similar dimensions, which suggests that the design may have been transferred by tracing, a practice common in the late 16th century, for instance in the atelier of Pieter Brueghel the Younger. One such version is discussed by Jan Briels (see Peintres Flamands en Hollane, Antwerp 1987, p. 125, reproduced, p. 121, fig. 36), while another is located in the Benoît de Puydt Museum, Bailleul. The composition is derived from a work in bodycolor on vellum dated 1582 by Savery's teacher, Hans Bol (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, inv, 823). The church in the background here resembles the Sint Jan Onthoofdingkerk as it appears today in Schellebelle, a small town on the River Schelde in the Belgian province of Oost Vlaanderen, famous for its production of lingerie.