Bartholomeus Breenbergh

Private collection, Ireland;
With Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York;
With Gebr. Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam;
Private Collection, Netherlands.

Chicago, Richard L. Feigen & Co., A Georgian Salon, 1984;
London, Richard L. Feigen & Co, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, 1991;
Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, An Eye for Detail. 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Collection of Henry H. Weldon, June 20-September 5, 1999, nos. 7a & 7b.

M. Roethlisberger, Bartholomeus Breenbergh. The Paintings, Berlin/New York 1981, p. 53, nos. 109a, 109b, reproduced;
M. Roethlisberger, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, London 1991, p. 17, cat. no. 5, reproduced pp. 18-19;
N.T. Minty and J. Spicer, An Eye for Detail. 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Collection of Henry H. Weldon, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore 1999, p. 18, nos. 7a & 7b, reproduced p. 19.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Both of these panels are in very good state. The composition with the ruins in the center has a few retouches in the sky, on the left side and in the upper right. However, both pictures are very well preserved and abrasion or deterioration has not occurred in any noticeable fashion. The paint layers could be revarnished but other than this the paintings are ready to be hung as is.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Roethlisberger (see literature) believes this pair of landscapes to have been executed during Breenbergh's final years in Rome, and perhaps finished after his return to the Netherlands circa 1629. He groups them with several other small oblong coppers, all of which are datable to the end of the Roman period.¹  Breenbergh left Rome at the end of the 1620s having arrived there in late 1619. In the ten or eleven years he spent there he adopted a style similar to those of other northerners in Rome, such as Gottfried Wals (1590/5-1638/40) and Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1594/5-1667), and indeed his early works have often been confused with those of the latter. During this time Breenbergh produced the majority of his almost 200 drawings, some of which were executed on the spot in the Roman campagna and others of which were worked up in the studio. These drawings were to provide the basis for his paintings for the rest of his career, long after he left Italy.  If, as Roethlisberger proposed, these coppers were finished after Breenburgh's return to the Netherlands, he may well have used one of these "Roman" drawings as the inspiration for this pair.   

Roethlisberger has identified the ruin depicted in the centre of the latter of these works with that depicted in a roundel attributed to Filippo Napoletano (1587-1629),² an artist with whom Breenbergh would have undoubtedly had a close working relationship during his Roman sojourn.

1 See Roethlisberger, under literature, 1991, nos. 108, 109 & 110.
2 See L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma,  vol. I, Rome 1977, p. 201, no. 38.2, reproduced p. 205.