- 44
Joos de Momper the Younger, Jan Breughel the Younger
Description
- Joos de Momper the Younger
- A winter landscape with an overturned horse-drawn cart, and figures driving a herd of pigs down a track
- oil on panel
Provenance
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 April 1984, lot 45;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman), London, Sotheby's, 12 July 2001, lot 23;
There acquired by the late owner.
Literature
Condition
"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."
Catalogue Note
Using lively brushwork and freely applied modulations of color, de Momper beautifully conveys the character of a peaceful but well-traversed section of a winter forest, shifting between sections of white snow and earthy ground to indicate the various paths the villagers have forged around the barren, frozen trees. Beyond the detailed foreground, past a rolling field blanketed in white, a small and sleepy village hazily emerges. Enlivening this otherwise quiet scene are several villagers and animals. Along one path, a line of horse-drawn carts has formed behind two figures attending to an overturned cart. Nearby, a pair of villagers follow a drove of pigs, one man crosses a bridge with his dogs, and three figures carrying bags and baskets appear to be making their way home.
This composition proved successful among the pair of artists, for the overturned horse-drawn cart, the positioning of the trees, the hazy village in the distance and the bridge in the right foreground all appear again in another collaboration between the two artists in Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie.2 Additionally, a free copy after the present composition, ascribed to Frans de Momper by Ertz, was sold London, Sotheby’s, 9 April 1986, lot 103.
1. In Ertz's 1986 Joos de Momper catalogue raisonné (see Literature), he records only sixty winter landscapes out of a catalogue of over six-hundred works.
2. See K. Ertz, under Literature, p. 585, cat. no. 438, reproduced fig. 271.