Studio of Pieter Brueghel the Younger Brussels 1564-1637/8 Antwerp

M.A. Hassid, London, 1953/4;
Private European collection.

H. Shipp, The Flemish Masters, London 1953, p. 10, illustrated plate XII (as by Pieter Bruegel the Elder);
H. Shipp, 'The original "Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap" by Pieter Bruegel', in Apollo, vol. LIX, no. 347, January 1954, p 1, reproduced (as by Pieter Bruegel the Elder);
P. Bianconi, The complete paintings of Bruegel, London 1969, p. 101, under no. 35 (as considered by Shipp to be by Pieter Bruegel the Elder);
F. Grossmann, Pieter Bruegel. Complete edition of the paintings, London 1974, p. 199 (as after an original by Pieter Bruegel the Elder); 
C. de Tolnay and P. Bianconi, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Bruegel l'ancien,  Paris 1981, p. 104, no. 54 (recording Grossmann's view that it is after a lost original of 1564);
W. Stechow, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, London 1970, p. 110 (as possibly by Pieter Bruegel the Elder);
K. Ertz, in Pieter Brueghel le jeune, Jan Brueghel l'Ancien - Une famille de peintres flamands vers 1600, exhibition catalogue, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 7 December 1997 - 14 April 1998, p. 370, under no. 132 (recording Grossmann's view that it after a lost original of 1564);
K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen 1998/2000, vol. II, p. 576 ;
P. van den Brink (ed.), Brueghel Enterprises, exhibition catalogue, Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum, 13 October 2001 - 17 February 2002, p. 161 (as having claims to be by Pieter Bruegel the Elder).

This painting is one of two versions that have been considered by art historians to be the prototype by Pieter Bruegel the Elder for this much-copied composition.  A painting formerly in the Delporte collection and now in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, signed and dated: BRVEGEL/M.D.LXV., oil on panel, 38 by 56 cm., was considered to be the Elder Bruegel's original by Friedländer and tentatively accepted by  Glück and, initially, by Grossmann (see M.J. Friedländer, in Cicerone, 1927, p. 216;  F. Grossmann, Bruegel the Paintings, London 1955, p. 199, no. 114; G. Glück, Bruegels Gemälde, Vienna 1932, pp. 74-75).  Shipp (see Literature, 1953) was the first to publish the present panel, which bears a date one year earlier than the Brussels painting, as the original by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.  Although Shipp (see Literature, 1954) cites W.R. Valentiner's description of the painting as an original work by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (presumably from a certificate) and records that Dr Max Friedländer had 'certified and written enthusiastically' about it, this assessment of the picture as a work by the Elder Bruegel has not  been accepted by other scholars.  Grossmann (see Literature) later revised his views on the Brussels picture, hypothesising that the present picture was painted after a lost original, while the one in Brussels is a workshop piece after the same prototype, but one to which Pieter Bruegel the Elder did actually contribute.  Rather than being a direct copy after a lost prototype, it seems more likely, however, that this picture is a product of the workshop of the Younger Brueghel, to which a date and  Elder Bruegel signature have been added.  The Younger Brueghel and his workshop produced numerous versions of this composition.  Ertz (see Literature, 1998/2000, pp. 605-630) lists no fewer than 127 versions, of which he considers 45 to be by Pieter Brueghel himself.  As van den Brink points out, however, "the huge volume of these small works...means that most will have been workshop output" (see Van den Brink under Literature, p. 160).