Lot 28
  • 28

Sebastiaen Vrancx

Estimate
300,000 - 500,000 USD
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Description

  • Sebastiaen Vrancx
  • Allegories of the seasons
  • a set of four, all oil on panel
  • each 10 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches

Provenance

Sir Everard Pauncefort Duncombe, Great Brickhill Manor, Bletchley, England;
Private American collection;
With Newhouse Galleries, New York;
Where purchased by the present collector in 1980.

Condition

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. The four paintings on panel in this set have no reinforcements on their reverse. The panels all appear to be painted on single pieces of oak, except perhaps the autumn scene, which has a possible original join or a crack across the center. The pictures appear to be dirty at present and would respond to cleaning. Retouches are sparingly applied. The condition of these pictures is generally remarkably good. There is barely any damage or weakness to the complex paint layer in the winter scene; this is certainly notable and unusual. The condition is also lovely in the autumn scene. In the summer composition, there is slight discoloration in the sky and some instability running horizontally through the panel in the upper center, which is now stable but may need slight correction. In the spring composition, there is an old crack running from left to right through the hats of the tallest figures, but even the thin areas of pigment in the lower portion of the picture are un-abraded. The condition of all of these pictures is favorable, and the paintings would respond beautifully to cleaning.
"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

These four paintings by Vrancx, datable to circa 1618 and all clearly depicting different times of the year, appear to represent the Four Seasons.  These types of allegorical pictures, where each month or season is characterized by the varying phases of the landscape and the associated human activities, were very popular in Flemish painting in the late 16th and early 17thcenturies and were clearly in demand.  Series of twelve panels of individual months, of six panels each representing two months, as well as sets of the four seasons were produced by a number of artists.1

Vrancx himself produced sets of the months and, with the present set, appears to have taken four of his compositions from such a series and re-combined them to successfully constitute a set representing the Four Seasons.  The winter composition, of which there are several known versions, is usually thought to depict the month of January. However, the figure of the small girl seen from behind at center left carries a duivekater-brood under her arm, a bread traditionally baked between 6 December (Sinterklaas) and 6 January (Epiphany), thus denoting the possibility that the painting is meant to depict the two months of December and January.  The farm scene in which the trees are not yet fully in leaf and a peasant is shown with a calf would seem to represent one of the spring months such as April or May; the more lush landscape with a peasant woman at right selling ripe cherries to a boy most likely represents one of the summer months of June or July; and the landscape with peasants harvesting wheat would likely depict August or September.

Other compositions by Vrancx that appear to be related to this group, on same size panels and with similar formats depicting large-scaled figures in the foreground set against expansive landscapes, are the Month of September (Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, INv. 6519); Spring landscape [Month of March] (Sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 3 March 1996, lot 94); and Landscape with grape harvest (Sale, London, Sotheby’s, 12 December 2002, lot 11).

 

1.  For a discussion of this subject, see H.J. van Miegroet, "'The Twelve Months' Reconsidered: How a Drawing by Pieter Stevens Clarifies a Bruegel Enigma,” in Simiolus, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1986), pp. 29-35.
2.  Another version of the winter scene (January) is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (Inv. no. 8242); two other versions sold recently at auctions, one Paris, Tajan, 22 June 2009, lot 7 ($207,973) and the other at Amsterdam, Christie’s. 13 October 2009, lot 37 ($143,360).