Circle of Pieter Brueghel the Younger

Anonymous sale, Zurich, Koller, 9 June 1989, lot 5010 (as 'in the style of Pieter Brueghel the Younger');

Anonymous sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 29 May 1992, lot 266;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 18 May 1994, lot 48 (as Marten van Cleve the Elder);

Where acquired by the present collector.

K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen 1998/2000, vol. I, pp. 142, 208, cat. no. A114, reproduced fig. 112 (as "Marten van Cleve?").

This delightful composition is a variation of a work originally painted in a circular format by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, currently in a New York, private collection.¹ Simultaneously a charming scene of peasant life and comical depiction of a Flemish proverb, this composition was popularized through engravings by Jan Wierix as well as painted versions by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and his workshop.² The work was also engraved in an extended rectangular format and in reverse by C.J. Visscher, a testament to the popularity of this composition.³

When discussed by Ertz, the present work, praised for its quality and inventiveness, was associated on stylistic grounds with Marten van Cleve the Elder. Another version of this composition, of comparable dimensions and format, attributed to Marten van Cleve the Younger, was sold in Vienna in 1995.⁴

¹ Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 10 July 2002, lot 37.

² Ertz 1998/2000, pp. 207-209.

³ See for example the impression in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

⁴ Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 17 October 1995, lot 127.