Bartholomeus Breenbergh

The copper support is flat and stable. The paint surface overall is in good condition though there are minor, thin scratches in the sky. Inspection under UV reveals some pinpoint retouches in the sky in the upper left side.
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In a letter dated 3 January 2010, Marcel Roethlisberger confirms this painting to be by Breenbergh and dates it to his earliest period in Italy, circa 1620/22.

Letter from Professor Marcel Roethlisberger, University of Geneva

“I recently saw this hitherto unknown painting in a French collection.  Excellent state of preservation.  A few modern retouching in the lower part of the clouds, some very minor paint losses, traces of old varnishes.  Possibly faint traces of a signature at bottom right.  A modern proprietor’s name inscribed on the reverse.

Imaginary southern view with some modest rural buildings, a purely imaginary large ruin, a young piping herdsman, three somewhat summary goats, two cypresses on the far right.

This delightful painting of an exquisitely fine execution appears right away to originate in the ambient of Italienate works by Jacob Pynas and Breenbergh, in the succession of Elsheimer and Pieter Lastman.  To this Roman circle belong likewise the aged Paul Bril, Filippo Napoletano, Goffredo Wals, David Teniers the elder, and others.  No other known work relates directly to this composition.

The closest stylistic link exists with two among the earliest paintings done by Breenbergh in Rome:  the small copper of the Finding of Moses of 1622 – his earliest dated work – (Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm, Fig.64 in my book Bartholomeus Breenbergh The paintings, Berlin 1981) and the small panel with Christ from the same period (Fig.65). Compare the diagonal set up of the scenery, details such as the buildings, the figurines, the cypress.  Other paintings and drawings by Breenbergh show numerous analogies with the copper presented here, in particular the diagonal composition with a steep effect of the perspective, the type of the small houses, the trees, the foliage (cf. op. cit. Figs. 83, 86, 96).  The painter is already in full possession of his pictural means, even though the large ruin is still more incoherent than those in later works.  The painterly execution is characteristic of Breenbergh, be this in the dense foliage and in the more fluffy passages of the ground.  See further links with his drawings in my book Bartholomeus Breenbergh Handzeichnungen, Berlin 1969, Figs. 7, 16, 33.

One can therefore convincingly ascribe this work to Breenbergh, and more precisely shortly before the copper of 1622, at the beginning of his Rome sojourn.  The painting is thus a key piece of the knowledge of his early mastery.  We lack any information about his training in his home country before his arrival in Rome in 1619.  An apprenticeship under Jacob Pynas in Amsterdam or in his immediate circle is more than likely.  This new painting reinforces his vicinity to Pynas.  The accomplished handling of the latter is however more incisive and clearly distinct from this newly appeared copper.