Workshop of Jan Brueghel the Elder

Fielding Lewis Marshall Jr (1903–1985) and his wife, Elizabeth Lewis Marshall (1907–1992), Illinois, by January 1965;

Their sale, London, Bonhams, 28 March 1974, lot 32 (as Jan Brueghel the Elder);

Private collection, France;

With De Jonckheere, Paris;

Where acquired by the present owners in 2003.

Exhibition of The Marshall Collection, exh. cat., London 1973, no. 34, reproduced (as Jan Brueghel the Elder).

North Carolina, Chapel Hill, William Hayes Auckland Memorial Art Center, on loan by January 1965, inv. nos L-61.4.19 and L-61.4.20 (as Jan Brueghel the Elder);

London, Sotheby's, Exhibition of The Marshall Collection, 31 December 1973 – 8 January 1974, no. 34 (as Jan Brueghel the Elder).

Both of these paintings on copper relate to signed pictures by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) dated to the early 1600s. A rest by the side of a windmill follows the same composition as a picture of 1606 by the Elder, which appeared for sale at Sotheby's New York on 8 June 2017, lot 43.¹ Likewise, A village on the banks of a river can be compared with a painting of 1609 by the Elder, that sold at Sotheby's London on 8 December 2021, lot 9, for £402,200.² The proliferation of workshop replicas after these designs, as typified by the present examples, attests to the popularity of these compositions among Brueghel's contemporary clientele.

¹ Oil on copper, 11.7 x 16.5 cm.; https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/master-paintings-n09639/lot.43.html?locale=en.

² Oil on copper, 12 x 16 cm.; https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/old-masters-evening-sale-2/landscape-with-a-rowing-boat-beside-riverside-2.