Sebastiaan Vrancx

Consul D Hubert Renz, Dresden (according to a label on the reverse);
With Johnny van Haeften, London, from whom bought by the present owner, 1987.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The panel is oak and has a central join that is unstable with evidence of minor paint loss along it, and one small split mid right. The paint surface is otherwise stable and in good condition apart from some small retouched paint loss in the sky upper left."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The composition derives from a lithograph, thought to be after a lost painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder,¹ which was copied several times by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Sebastiaan Vrancx. Several other versions of this subject by Vrancx are known, including one in a private collection in Madrid² and another sold London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 201, for £49,900.³ The present work is in the opposite sense to the lithograph.

The panelmakers' mark AE (in ligature) can be identified as that of Ambrosius Engelants, a student of Lambrecht Steens (active 1608-1638). He became a master in 1625 and started working for the painter and dealer Lucas Floquet (1578-1635) a few years later.

1. See David Teniers, Jan Brueghel y Los Gabinetes de Pinturas, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1992, p. 128, reproduced fig. 78b;
2. Idem, pp. 126-9, reproduced;
3. Lot 154 in this sale.