- 6
Sebastiaan Vrancx
Description
- Sebastiaan Vrancx
- an allegory of summer, with peasants bringing in the harvest
- oil on oak panel
Provenance
Comte François de Robiano, Senateur;
His sale, Brussels, Barbé, 1 May 1837, lot 72 (as Pierre Brueghel);
General van der Meeren;
Alexandre van der Beeken Pasteel;
His sale, Eindhoven, 1869 (as Pierre Brueghel);
Edmond de Ryckman:
Thence by descent to the present owners.
Condition
"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."
Catalogue Note
This and the following lot, which shares the provenance given here, are two from a set of four Seasons. The other two paintings, depicting Winter and Spring, are in a private family collection. The compositions of all four proved immensely popular, and were repeated in many versions by Vrancx and his workshop. Examples of Summer include those sold at Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1985, lot 51, and London, 9 December 2004, lot 107, and of Autumn at Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1986, lot 36. A complete set of Four Seasons, dated 1608 and probably the earliest version, was sold in Brussels, Galerie Fièvez, 10 March 1927, lot 111. The paintings comprising that set are on panels of very similar size to the present two, and the compositions of Summer and Autumn are similar to the present pictures, with small differences only. Another set was sold at Christie's, New York, 18 May 1994, lot 44, for $630,000.
The present set can be dated on grounds of style circa 1618.