Joos de Momper the Younger, Jan Breughel the Younger

Zimmermann collection;
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.

K. Ertz, Josse de Momper de Jüngere, Freren 1986, pp. 242, 586, cat. no. 439, reproduced p. 244, fig. 272. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.This work has been restored, but a crack running horizontally about 1 ½ inches from the top edge has begun to show instability. It may be that this top section of the painting is not period. The panel has been mounted onto a heavy piece of wood, but this join across the top needs some attention. No restorations are evident under ultraviolet light except across the join at the top, in a few spots in the upper left sky, in a few other dots in the center of the left sky and to a thin crack running across the center of the work from the right side. The top of the sky has a fair amount of restoration that cannot be detected under ultraviolet light. The work is in lovely condition in the foreground and in the bulk of the picture.
"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."

Even though Joos de Momper was one of the most prolific landscape painters in the Netherlands in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, his winter landscapes only form a small portion of his output.¹ It is in winter landscapes such as the present painting, however, that de Momper demonstrates his unmatched skills in capturing the ephemeral effects of passing weather conditions.  This painting belongs to a group of collaborative works, most of which are datable to the 1620s, in which Joos de Momper completed the landscapes while Jan Brueghel the Younger added the staffage.  Ertz dates this particular painting to the end of that decade, grouping it with a small number of other winter scenes in which figures and tracks interweave around a central axis, most often marked by a tree.   

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.