Pieter Brueghel the Younger Brussels 1564 - 1637/8 Antwerp

Count Andrassy, Budapest, until 1937 when consigned to;
With Galerie Hevesi, Vienna, 1937;
With Delius Giese, London, by 1939, where purchased by,
Gordon Turner, London, and by 1951 Chateau de la Mormaire, France;
Thence by descent in the family of the present owner.

Georges Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels 1969, p. 247
Klaus Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngerer (1564-1637/8).  Die Gemälde mit kritischem oeuvrekatalog, Luca verlag Lingen 1988/200, p. 626, no. F775 (as Pieter Breughel the Younger, and mentions Glück thought the figures might possibly be by Avercamp).

The composition of The Bird Trap is one of the most popular created by the Brueghel family.  The prototype has generally been thought to be the painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, dated 1565, formerly in the F. Delporte collection and now in the Musées des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.  Pieter Brueghel the Younger and his busy studio produced numerous copies and variations of the composition.  Klaus Ertz, in his monograph Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen 2000, vol. II, pp. 605-21, nos. E682-E725, lists over forty versions that he accepts as autograph.  The earliest known dated version by Brueghel the Younger is the painting dated 1601 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna;  the latest dated version, formerly in the collection of Baron Coppée, Brussels, is dated 1626.  Georges Marlier, in the catalogue of the exhibition Le Siècle de Brueghel (Brussels, Musèes Royaux des Beaux-Arts, September 27-November 24, 1963, p. 69) identified the village depicted as Pede-Ste-Anne in Brabant.

The present composition is particularly interesting, not only because of its size being larger than the other versions, but also because several figures were added to the composition circa 1630-35, by an artist in the circle of Hendrick Avercamp since the figures' costumes are very much of that period.  It seems most likely that a 17th century owner of the picture desired to have a few additional figures added to the composition, dressed in the costume of their time, to give the work a more contemporary look. The painting is sold with a copy of a certificate from Gustav Glück dated 1937, in which after first hand inspection of the picture he describes the picture as a work by Pieter Brueghel, the Younger with some additional figures "possibly by Avercamp".

It has been suggested that the underlying subject of The Bird Trap is the precariousness of life, which is marked by the birds’ total ignorance to the threat of the trap that awaits them. This notion is furthered by the image of the carefree skaters playing upon the fragile ice seemingly unconcerned by the potential danger of it cracking. The exact meaning of this popular scene is not entirely clear although the deliberate allusions to the brevity and transience of life would have been an intentional moralizing reference following in the tradition of his father. There has also been speculation made that the bird trap alludes to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands at this time. Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s Bird Trap in Brussels is dated 1565, which is only one year before the popular iconoclastic uprising against the Spanish authorities. The Duke of Alba was sent to repress the risings, done in a very high minded and sometimes brutal manner. The leitmotif of The Bird Trap has often been interpreted as a parallel to the repressive Spanish regime that continued to ensnare the people of the Netherlands throughout the lifetime of both Pieter Brueghel the Elder and his son.