Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 49: 

Technical notes: The support consists of a small
rectangular copper plate with a thickness of c.1mm. The
plate has a high level of finish and is free of any clue as to
manufacture such as hammer marks or rolls.
Paint is applied in thin opaque layers with minimal
brushmarking. Examination of the painting with infrared
reflectography did not reveal any evidence of underdrawing.
The painting is generally in good condition. An old
but only slightly discoloured varnish layer is present.
Abrasion is moderate throughout. Slight abrasion, wear
and minor paint losses occur along all four edges. There
are scattered small paint losses and small amounts of
retouching, particularly in the sky at upper right. The
painting underwent conservation treatment in 1933 and
1986.
Provenance: Johan Gustaf Netzel, Stockholm, until
1867; bequeathed by J. G. Netzel in 1867; KM 1867, no.
19 (as Jan Brueghel I); KM 1861/1867, no. 1411.

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 25 (as Jan Brueghel
I); Sander IV, p. 137; Göthe 1887, p. 36 (as Jan Brueghel
I or his manner); Göthe 1893, p. 45; NM Cat. 1958, p.
30 (as Jan Brueghel I); Ertz 1984, p. 247 under no. 66;
NM Cat. 1990, p. 59 (as manner of Jan Brueghel I).

This small landscape painting depicts a country road
with travellers in the foreground on the left, running
alongside a river at the centre, with a watermill and a
village in the middle distance. The present painting is
a free copy derived from a painting in circular format
that was on the New York art market in 1996, regarded
by Ertz (1984) as an original composition by Jan
Brueghel II done in the manner of his father, Jan I, and
dated in the 1620s.1 A painting identical to the picture
formerly in New York, probably an autograph replica,
is in Luxembourg (Galerie municipal de Peinture).2
This painting copies the landscape, the watermill and
other buildings – including one of Antwerp’s city gates
– from the composition known through the Vienna
and New York paintings. However, the staffage of figures
and horse-drawn carts differs from the original
composition and – the format of the present painting
being rectangular rather than circular – the foreground
landscape was somewhat extended, with the
road now leading off to the left instead of at centre.
The work of an unidentified 17th-century copyist, one
of the innumerable such copies and pastiches produced
for the Antwerp art market, this painting actually
provides more of an interpretation than a straightforward
copy of Jan II’s original.
CF

1 Oil on wood, circular panel, 21 cm in diameter, sale, New York,
Christie’s, 12 January 1996, lot 78; for which see Ertz 1984, no. 66, colour
pl. 14.
2 Oil on wood, circular panel, 20.5 cm in diameter, Luxembourg, Galerie
municipale de Peinture; see photograph on file at the RKD, The Hague.

I 1958 års katalog över målerisamlingen som Jan Bruegel själv, nu  Hans art. [End]

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