Abel Grimmer Antwerp circa 1570 - 1618/9

The support consists of a single, stable, circular oak panel, which is bevelled and uncradled. There is a diagonal split that runs from the upper right to the lower left; at the upper right the split is through the panel but is confined to the surface as it reaches the lower left. There are two further minor diagonal surface splits in the upper half of the composition. The paint surface is rather dirty but in overall good condition, despite a few areas of wear, notably to the sky where the panel grain is quite visible. The pronounced split upper right has been partly restored although the restoration is visible to the naked eye. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals some very minor strengthening to the figures to the right, to some small patches in the foreground and only a few further very minor interferences. This painting is generally well-preserved although would perhaps benefit from a light clean. Sold with an old plain wood frame, in fair condition. AF*
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Although bearing the signature of Jacob Grimmer, this painting can be attributed to his son Abel on stylistic grounds.  The composition, with its high viewpoint, marked foreground and receding landscape behind, is more typical of Abel and the tondo format was also one which he particularly favoured: compare, for example, his Winter scene with skaters where the composition is structured around similar principles.¹  Abel sometimes depicted such scenes as part of a larger series, illustrating the months or the seasons, and it is not impossible that the present tondo may have represented Winter in a set of the Four Seasons.  Other series of tondi have survived, one illustrating only seven months and the other all twelve, and these are dated 1603 and 1604-6 respectively.²  A similar date of execution at the very beginning of the 17th century seems plausible also for the present work.

1  Oil on panel, tondo, diameter 12 cm.; sold, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1981, lot 38. See R. de Bertier de Sauvigny, Jacob et Abel Grimmer. Catalogue raisonné, Brussels 1991, p. 277, cat. no. 2 (under 'Tableaux d'Hivers'), reproduced on p. 275, fig. 142.
2  For these see De Bertier de Sauvigny, op. cit., p. 214, cat. nos. XL ('Une série de sept mois') and XLI ('Une série de douze mois'), most reproduced.