Joos de Momper the Younger

Purchased from P. & D. Colnaghi, 1948

London, Royal Academy, Old Master Drawings, 1953, no. 269 (as Lucas van Valckenborch);
London, Royal Academy, Flemish Art, 1953, no. 478 (as Lucas van Valckenborch);
London, Royal Academy, The Paul Oppé Collection, 1958, no. 399 (as Lucas van Valckenborch);
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Exhibition of Works from the Paul Oppé Collection, 1961, no. 150 (as Lucas van Valckenborch)

S.J.G. Gudlaugsson, 'Het Errara-Schetsboek en Lucas van Valckenborch', Oud Holland, vol. 74, 1959, p. 134, fig. 29 (as Lucas van Valckenborch);
A. Wied, 'Lucas van Valckenborch', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorisches Sammlungen in Wien, vol. 67, 1971, p. 119, figs. 182, 183 (as Tobias Verhaecht?);
R.G. Génaille, 'De Bruegel à G. van Coninxloo. Remarques sur le paysage', Jaarboek van het Koninklijke Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen, 1983, p. 155, note 72 (as study by Lucas van Valckenborch for a painting in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam);
A. Wied, Lucas und Marten van Valckenborch, Freren 1990, p. 197, under no. 116; p. 218, no. G 24 (as 'Tobias Verhaecht (?)'), recto and verso illustrated

This magnificent, double-sided drawing combines an elaborate and rather finished composition on the recto with a much looser and more freely drawn sketch on the verso, in which the style of its author, Joos de Momper, is perhaps more readily apparent.  

The traditional attribution to Lucas van Valckenborch is understandable, as the drawing on the recto is close in composition to a number of that artist's typical mountain landscapes, and is in fact clearly preparatory for a painting, in Braunschweig, which is also traditionally attributed to Valckenborch, though in Alexander Wied's view wrongly so.¹  Wied feels that the Braunschweig painting, and also this drawing, are closer in style to the works of Joos de Momper or Tobias Verhaecht.  

His preference was for Verhaecht, but the most closely comparable drawings to this are two that have been published, very convincingly, by Terész Gerszi, as the work of the relatively youthful Joos de Momper, perhaps dating from not long after his formative period working as a student of Lodewijk Toeput, called Pozzoserrato, in Rome.²  One of these, sold at Sotheby's in Amsterdam in 1984 (26 November 1984, lot 18), was also formerly attributed to Lucas van Valckenborch.   

Convincing comparisons can also be found in Momper's paintings.  In terms of specific motifs, the wayside chapel on a rugged hillside, for example, as seen here on the verso, features prominently in various paintings by the artist, such as the splendid Large Mountain landscape with travellers, formerly with Galerie Meissner, Zürich.³  In overall composition too, a number of very comparable works are known, perhaps the closest of all being a pair of paintings in the Kustmuseum, Basel, heavily reminiscent of Valckenborch, which the museum held under the name of Verhaecht until Klaus Ertz identified them as early works by Joos de Momper.⁴

The thorny problems of attribution associated with many Flemish landscape drawings of this period are only gradually being resolved, but the publications of Wied, Ertz and Gerszi have at least considerably advanced our understanding of the style of Joos de Momper, allowing the secure identification of this imposing, double-sided sheet as one of the most important and impressive of the artist's surviving drawings.

^1. Wied, op. cit., 1990, no. 116

^2. T. Gerszi, 'Joos de Momper als Zeichner, II,' Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, NF, vol. 36, 1994, p. 167, fig. 1, and p. 169, fig. 4

^3. K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jüngere, Freren 1986, no. 198

^4. Ertz, op. cit., nos. 27 & 28