Jan Brueghel the Elder Brussels 1568 - 1625 Antwerp

Thomas Charles Higgins (1799-1865), Turvey House, Bedfordshire;
Thence by family descent at Turvey House.

This newly discovered and hitherto unpublished picture is a relatively early work by Brueghel, painted circa 1599-1600.  The subject had been treated by Jan's father, Pieter Breugel the Elder, in a painting now in Budapest, Szepmüveszeti Museum.  Jan Brueghel made two copies of the painting: one, dated 1598, in Munich, Alte Pinakothek, inv. no. 834; and an undated autograph replica in Basel, Kunstmuseum, inv. no. 139 (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Cologne 1979, pp. 79, 429, 430, 459, 566, no. 51, fig. 516 and pp. 429, 566, no. 52, fig. 517 respectively).  In these pictures, the large group of figures who have gathered in a clearing to hear the Baptist preaching, dominate the compostion.  Jan Brueghel's first original treatment of the theme appears to be a painting, last recorded in Vienna,  in which the scale of the figures in relation to the landscape is much reduced and the forest itself takes on a more dominant role in the compostion (Ertz, op. cit., pp. 90, 92, 429, 431, 566, no. 53, fig. 519). Ertz dates the Vienna picture to circa 1598, in view of the compositional and thematic similarity with the artist's Coastal Landscape with the Preaching of Christ, dated 1598, now in Munich, Alte Pinakothek, inv. no. 187 (Ertz, op. cit., pp. 28, 33, 38, 41, 42, 78, 79, 84, 90, 92, 93, 94, 114, 172, 332, 432, 433, 435, 565, no. 46, fig. 8, detail p. 35). Although the Vienna version of this subject and the present picture have broadly similar compositions, the figures in the latter are far less numerous, and it compares more closely with a Wooded landscape with the Sacrifice of Isaac, dated 1599, in the collection of Mr and Mrs Brandwen, New York, which is also set within a densely wooded forest, with a small number of figures occupying the left foreground and a distant landscape to the right( Ertz, op. cit., pp. 199, 566, no. 56, figs. 236, 237).

Thomas Charles Higgins, the first recorded owner of this picture, was the son of John Higgins, who in the late 1790s commissioned the house at Turvey. Thomas Charles inherited the house in 1813, largely rebuilding it, and making it into one of the most beautiful country houses in north Bedfordshire. He collected an interesting group of Old Master paintings and had a particular penchant for Dutch and Flemish 17^th century works.