Jan Brueghel the Younger

The design is known in five versions, including the present painting, all of similar size but all with slight variations within the overall design. These paintings are those in the Prado, Madrid (inv. no. 1424, panel 47 by 35 cm., reproduced in K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Cologne 1979, p. 592, no. 207, fig. 334); formerly in the Thurkow collection, and now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (panel, 42 by 34.5 cm., Ertz, op. cit., p. 207, no. 208, fig. 356); an indistinctly signed copper formerly with Silvano Lodi, Campione d'Italia, and now in a German private collection (44.4 by 30.5 cm., ibid., p. 207, no. 208a, reproduced fig. 355 and in colour on p. 326); and that sold New York, Sotheby's, 10 January 1991, lot 102 (as Jan Brueghel the Younger) and later with Richard Green, London. Of these the present work comes closest to that now in the Mauritshuis, from which it differs chiefly in the replacement of a variegated tulip with pointed leaves in the upper right hand corner with another with more rounded leaves.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for pointing out that in his opinion, on the basis of carefully studied photographs, the present work is also an autograph work by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). He considers all five works in the group to be by the hand of the elder Brueghel, with the prime version being probably that now in the Prado. A dating around 1609-1613 for the group has been suggested by Beatrijs Brenninkmeijer de Rooij, `Zeldzame bloemen, `Fatti tutti del naturel' door Jan Brueghel I', in Oud Holland, 104 (1990), pp. 218-48 especially p. 233. This lot is also sold with the original certificate of Dr. Klaus Ertz, dated Freren September 1983, as by Jan Brueghel the Younger.