Joos de Momper, Jan Breughel the Younger

Mme. C. Tiranti, Paris;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 12 July 1978, lot 11;
With Brod Gallery, London, 1979.

K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jüngere, Freren 1986, p. 508, cat. 153, reproduced p. 507, fig. 153 (as datable to the early 1620s; with collaboration of Jan Brueghel the Younger).

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. This work has been restored and looks well as a result. The panel is made from two pieces of oak joined horizontally across the center of the work. The join has received a wooden reinforcement across the back. It is nicely restored and is only very slightly visible on the surface. The panel is slightly curved from top to bottom. Under ultraviolet light, one can see scattered retouches in the sky and restorations along the original join, particularly on the left side. The landscape and foreground are in beautiful condition, showing no retouches.
"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."

Joos de Momper was famed for his depiction of mountain landscapes, drawing on the tradition of the panoramic “world landscapes” developed by such earlier painters as Joachim Patinir and Herri Met de Bles. He was so closely associated with this type of landscape that he was given the moniker “pictor montium” (painter of mountains) on his portrait in the Iconography, a series of portrait prints based on designs by Anthony van Dyck.

This beautiful example has been dated by Klaus Ertz (see Literature) to De Momper’s mature period, in the early 1620s.  From an elevated viewpoint, the earth tones and greens of the foreground give way to an ethereal blue as the landscape recedes into the distance.  This work is a collaboration with Jan Brueghel  the Younger who painted the foreground figures.  This type of collaboration between two artists was common in Flemish painting of the period.  De Momper had long worked with Jan’s father, Jan Brueghel the Elder, with whom he co-produced over 200 paintings.¹  When his father died suddenly in 1625, Jan the Younger took over direction of the studio and continued working with De Momper, painting in a style heavily influenced by his father’s.  Here the figures populate the right foreground, where they go about the mundane task of chopping wood, and provide a realistic element to the otherwise fantastical landscape.

1.  See K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Kritischer Katalog de Gemälde, Lingen 2008-10, vol. IV, p. 1378.