Jan Brueghel the Younger - Mount Calvary

Jan Brueghel the Younger

Mount Calvary

Oil on copper. 13 x 18 cm.
Traces of a signature to the lower left..

Following the death of his father Jan Brueghel the Elder, his son Jan the Younger took over his studio and continued to work in his unmistakable manner until about 1635. It was only after this time that Jan the Younger found his own style of painting, which is expressed above all in simplified and generous brush strokes.
Our small copper panel belongs to the former group of works. The composition is based on an earlier much larger work by his father, which is today housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. no. 823, Ertz op. cit. cat. no. 274). A variant of this painting with more comparable groups of figures and dimensions to the present work, was recorded in 1995 in the Galerie de Jonckheere (see expertise, with illustration).
Two old photographs from the former Züngeling collection show this scene as a counterpart to an image depicting "The Road to Calvary". On the back of the latter it says "1952 verkoeft", while on the photo of our picture it says "bought in the Hague in 1953 from Jüngeling art dealers for 1675 guilders with expert opinion Dr. Friedländer". This could be the picture that was first acquired for the Wetzler Collection and later that of David Koetser. Today it is housed in the Kunsthaus Zürich as the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder (Ertz op. cit. no. 272).

Certificate

K. Ertz, 8th May 2010.

Provenance

Kunsthandel Jüngelring, The Hague. - Purchased there in 1953. - Probably sold by Christie´s New York 28.01.2009, lot 260 (slightly differing dimensions). - German private collection.

Literature

Cf.: K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel d. Ä, 2008-10, vol. II, cat. 274.