Jan Brueghel the Younger Antwerp 1601 - 1678

According to tradition, in the collection of Louis XVI of France, and given by him to his Confessor, Abbé Dupré (see note above);
David family, circa 1911;
Baron Evence III Coppée, Brussels, probably acquired in 1923 or shortly after;
Thence by descent.

Ghent, 1913;
Brussels, Exposition d’Art Ancien, Noël dans l’art ancien, 18 December 1941- 6 January 1942, no. 43;
Brussels, Musée d’Art Ancien, Fleurs, la Nature et l’Image, 1 - 24 June 1980, no. 172;
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts,  Bruegel. Une dynastie de peintres, 18 September - 18 November 1980, no. 172.

D’Arschot, 1943, fig. 5;
M.-L. Hairs, in Bruegel. Une dynastie de peintres, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 18 September - 8 November 1980, p. 240, no. 172;
S. Leclercq (ed. Leodico Recherches), La Collection Coppée,  Brussels 1991, p. 90, reproduced in colour p. 91.

The traditional attribution to Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen (and the traditional early provenance) is recorded in a letter of 27^th February 1911 from the Carmelite Convent at Bierghes-lez-Saintes, when the painting was in the possession of the David family.  This attribution was sustained by the art historian Jules Destrée in a photo-certificate of 1923, and by D’Arschot in 1943.  It was Marie-Louise Hairs, writing in the catalogue of the landmark Bruegel exhibition in Brussels in 1980, for which this picture was chosen, who first recognised the authorship of Jan Brueghel the Younger.

The prime version by Jan Brueghel the Elder, with figures by Pieter van Avont, is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and has been dated to circa 1623 (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Cologne 1979, pp. 206, 271, 290, 318, 320, 325, 332, 516, 622, cat. no. 381, reproduced p. 321, fig. 392).  Another version by Jan Brueghel, with figures by Hendrick van Balen, was sold in London on 10^th December 2003 (for £1.1 million), and three further versions by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen are recorded (see Ertz, op. cit., p. 620, cat. nos. 369, 370 and 371, the first reproduced p. 323, fig. 394).

The present picture is similar in style and handling to other versions painted by Jan Brueghel the Younger of his father’s garlands encircling the Holy Family, which are generally dated to the 1630s (see, for example, K. Ertz, Jan Breughel the Younger (1601-1678), Freren 1984, pp. 469-73, cat. nos. 302-4, all reproduced).