Sebastiaan Vrancx

Comte François de Robiano, Senateur;
His sale, Brussels, Barbé, 1 May 1837, lot 72 (as Pierre Brueghel);
General van der Meeren;
Alexandre van der Beeken Pasteel;
His sale, Eindhoven, 1869 (as Pierre Brueghel);
Edmond de Ryckman:
Thence by descent to the present owners.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting, and its pendant, are on fine oak panels with one central joint, and have fairly old cradles, perhaps from early in the last century. The central joint has never been reglued or retouched, and has just a brief slight opening at the extreme left edge with two tiny recent lost flakes. There are one or two brief narrow lines of retouching coming in from the upper right edge, with no sign of further or recent movement; and the cradle may have been formulaic, carried out when the joint of the pendant needed regluing. The varnish is old, and patchily yellowed, for instance in the lower left base corner and one small touch by the side of the central haywain. The stable background and early life of the painting can be seen throughout, in its magnificently unworn, rich, intact condition. The broad underlying slanting brushstrokes of the ground are lightly visible with every fine translucent detail in the upper films of paint perfectly preserved, even in the deepest browns, which are the most vulnerable. Even the minutiae of the distant landscape and windmill against the sky or figures in the stream are entirely unworn. There may have been scarcely any intervention at all in the life of this painting. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This and the following lot, which shares the provenance given here, are two from a set of four Seasons.  The other two paintings, depicting Winter and Spring, are in a private family collection.  The compositions of all four proved immensely popular, and were repeated in many versions by Vrancx and his workshop.  Examples of Summer include those sold at Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1985, lot 51, and London, 9 December 2004, lot 107, and of Autumn at Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1986, lot 36.  A complete set of Four Seasons, dated 1608 and probably the earliest version, was sold in Brussels, Galerie Fièvez, 10 March 1927, lot 111.  The paintings comprising that set are on panels of very similar size to the present two, and the compositions of Summer and Autumn are similar to the present pictures, with small differences only.  Another set was sold at Christie's, New York, 18 May 1994, lot 44, for $630,000.

The present set can be dated on grounds of style circa 1618.