Jan Brueghel the Elder Brussels 1568 - 1625 Antwerp

This hitherto unknown work is an important addition to Jan Brueghel the Elder's oeuvre.  The subject and compositional type, with a view along the left bank of a river, boats unloading and a village beyond, is known in other pictures painted in the middle of the first decade of the 17th Century, such as the one in the Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London, also dated 1606 (the only other picture dated this year), and the one in Toledo (Ohio), Museum of Art, dated 1604 (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625).  Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Cologne 1979, pp. 53-4, 575, 580, cat. nos. 135, 106, reproduced figs. 24 and 23 respectively).  These are to be distinguished from a further group of village river landscapes dating from around 1611 onwards, throughout much of the second decade of the century, in which the quay, not the river, dominates the foreground, often with a fish market (for example, Ertz, op. cit., pp. 55-7, 597, 605, cat. nos. 235, 286, reproduced figs. 25 and 26).  The present type had its origins in pictures dating from around 1602, with compositions that are broadly similar, but include the right bank of a narrower watercourse (idem, pp. 58, 62, 571, 573, cat. nos. 85 and 96, reproduced figs. 28 and 30, for example).  In developing the composition towards the present type, Brueghel evidently found greater stimulus in depicting boats underway and distant views; these compositions are markedly less claustrophobic than the earlier type. 

The present composition is known through a copy attributed to the artist's son, Jan Brueghel the Younger, who adapted the composition by making it much wider, without otherwise altering it any significant respect (unsigned, oil on panel, 23.5 by 52 cm., private collection; see K. Ertz, Jan Breughel the Younger (1601-1678).  The Paintings with Oeuvre Catalogue, Freren 1984, p. 240, cat. no. 61, reproduced p. 239, as by Jan Brueghel the Younger, dating from the 1640s).

Jan Brueghel the Elder made few compositional drawings that can be directly connected with paintings, but he did make studies of figures, and of boats, invariably in pen and bistre, some of which he used in his paintings.  His drawings of boats, some in sheets of sketches, some quite finished studies of boats on rivers, are in particular of extremely high quality and are very well understood, which is surely why the boats in his paintings are, like the ones here, so beautifully drawn.  Jan Brueghel reveals the same artistic personality in his drawings as he does in his paintings: one of meticulousness and attention to detail coupled with a lightness of touch and an unhesitating sureness.

The Peeter Stas copper
Peeter Stas, the leading maker of copper plates in Antwerp, who made the present plate, was active from 1587 until, probably, after 1610 (he died in 1617).  His maker's mark, applied by him or by the assaymaster, varies considerably over the course of his career, and sometimes seems to have changed several times within the course of a very few years.  Research by J¢rgen Wadum, comparing the type of mark with the year stamp that appears on some plates, or with the date of the painting, has made it possible to date some copper plates precisely (see J. Wadum, `Antwerp Copper Plates', in Copper as Canvas, exhibition catalogue, New York/Oxford 1999, pp. 93-116, especially pp. 102-7, figs. 5.13-5.19).  The present copper is stamped with a mark found in the years 1606 and 1607 (see fig. 1).  A different mark is also found in 1606, suggesting that the present type was introduced in the course of that year, and the present mark appears to be clearer and less worn that when used in 1607, although given the wear that copper plates inevitably suffer, this is inconclusive.  By 1608, however,  a different stamp, minus the encircling ring is used (or possibly the same stamp but substantially worn and re-worked).  Copper plates were expensive, so it is not surprising that this one was used for the present painting within, probably, months of manufacture.  J¢rgen Wadum reproduces a copper mark, identical in all respects to the present one, found on the support of an undated painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder in St. Louis Art Museum, which has been dated circa 1607-9 (idem, reproduced fig. 5.19); this picture is more likely to date from slightly earlier, circa 1606-7.