Jan Brueghel II

(Antwerp 1601–1678)
An extensive hilly landscape with travellers on a path and cattle in the foreground,
oil on panel, 45 x 75 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, until circa 2000;
where acquired by the present owner

The present painting is accompanied by a written certificate issued by Klaus Ertz (March 2018).

Ertz writes: ‘The work to be assessed, Hilly Landscape with Cattle, is known to me in the original. Having carefully examined this well-preserved painting, I am convinced that it was created by the Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Younger towards the late 1620s, shortly after he had taken over his father’s studio in Antwerp. The use of yellow, brown, and green for the foreground and of blue, yellow, and white for the sky, a sun partially covered by clouds and casting its light on the hilly landscape scenery from the upper left, the economically placed accents of red in the garments of the peasants on the path and on the wagons are just as typical of the artist as are the white highlights in the branches of the trees, the skeleton, the sheep, and the outlines of the covered wagons, lending the picture a sense of depth. The refined details likewise speak in favour of an early date of execution. In this period, the son developed his own ideas while drawing upon the repertoire left behind by his father and his friend, the landscapist Josse de Momper the Younger (who is the only one known to have used this characteristic tone of oxblood red that can be seen here in the hill on the left), thereby creating surprisingly new compositional inventions.’