Studio of Frederik van Valckenborch Antwerp 1566 - 1623 Nuremberg

Private collection, Antwerp, by 1987.

Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Joachim Beuckelaer. Het markt- en keukenstuk in de Nederlanden 1550-1650, 12 December 1986 - 8 March 1987, cat. no. 24, as Studio of Frederik van Valckenborch.

P. Verbraeken, Joachim Beuckelaer. Het markt- en keukenstuk in de Nederlanden 1550-1650, exhibition catalogue, Ghent 1986, p. 150, no. 24, reproduced.

The actual painting is somewhat darker in tone and has less contrast in the colours than the catalogue illustration suggests. The canvas is relined and consists of two pieces, joined vertically. Filled and retouched damages are visible in the centre, along the joint and centre left as well as in the upper right above the butcher's head. Discoloured retouchings are visible throughout, but especially in the face and hands of the meat buying lady and in the area of the fishermen centre left and in the cityscape backdrop and sky. There is vertical repaired scratch visible lower left. The paint surface is under a craquelure pattern which varies from very fine and dense in the middleground to quite coarse in the upper background areas. The varnish is very dirty and discoloured, the painting would benefit from a cleaning. Inspection under UV-light confirms abovementioned retouchings and reveals additional retouchings throughout, but especially in the fish still life, the group of fishermen to the left and upper right as well as a restored tear next to the stall in the centre. The varnish seems to be unevenly cleaned. Offered in a faux tortoise shell frame, in good condition. (JD)
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This painting is almost certainly one of a set of seasonal allegories, of which a very similar complete series is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, also attributed to the studio of Frederik van Valckenborch (inv. nos. 2197, 2198, 2202, 2203). Here Winter is depicted by a market of meat and fish. The works in Vienna show Spring depicted by a market of flowers, Summer by a market of fruits and Autumn by a market of poultry. It is clear that Valckenborch and his assistants looked closely at the work of  their predesessor Joachim Beuckelaer (circa 1639-circa 1673), not only in subject matter, but also in the composition structure with the see-throughs towards the back and the large still lifes in the foreground.

According to the exhibition catalogue (see under Exhibited), the present whereabouts of the three other paintings belonging to this Winter allegory, are unknown since 1980, although no mention is made of where the series was before this date.