Workshop of Sebastiaan Vrancx

Charles Frederick Urschel (1890-1970) and Berenice Slick Urschel (d. 1970), San Antonio, Texas;

By whom posthumously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 20 May 1971, lots 82 and 84;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 8 December 1972, lots 89 and 89a (as Sebastian Vrancx);

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 14 April 1978, lots 8 and 9 (as Sebastian Vrancx);

Major Jocelyn Olaf Hambro (1919-1994);

Thence by descent.

Vrancx and his studio produced a number of sets of paintings, some depicting cycles of Biblical episodes, such as The Story of the Prodigal Son, sold in these Rooms, 5 December 2018, lot 10, others illustrating the perennially popular subjects of The Four Seasons or the months of the year. These grand and decorative canvases depicting two of The Four Elements were originally part of a set of four, which also included an Allegory of Fire: a forge, and an Allegory of Earth: a fruit and flower market, which were all sold together in 1971, but were apparently split up - like so many of these series - before they appeared on the market again a year later.

These allegorical market scenes are packed with an astounding variety of, on one hand - all kinds of fish, crustaceans and shells, and on the other - birds ranging from the aquatic, to the domestic, to the exotic. The gestures of the auxiliary figures, like actors in tableaux, serve to guide the viewer's eye from one detail to the next. Vrancx's sense of theatre is also evident in the perspectival, stage-like settings of the compositions. The fish sellers have set up shop beside a Roman fountain, reminiscent of the Trevi, but on a quay which bears some resemblance to the old waterfront beside the Scheldt in Vrancx's native Antwerp, which he depicted on other occasions. The bird market is even more obviously classicised through the Italianate city architecture and the Corinthian columns on the left. Vrancx travelled in Italy in the years before 1600, making numerous drawings, particularly of ruins, and these influences never left his work.

The Allegory of Water is dated 1632, a time in Vrancx’s career when he was in high demand and surely employed assistants to help in the execution of the large number of commissions he received at this time, even though Jan Brueghel the Younger’s letter from 1634 says otherwise: ‘Vrancx has plenty to do but refuses to employ studio assistants, which means that work takes a long time. He does not allow copies to be put into circulation’.¹ It is indeed the case that the present works represent unique compositions.

¹ See H. Gerson and E.H. ter Kuile, Art and Architecture in Belgium, 1600-1800, Harmondsworth 1960, p. 63, note 33.