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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 46: 

Technical notes: The painting’s support consists of
a thin copper plate with slightly irregularly cut edges.
The verso of the support shows no signs of manufacture,
but carries an as yet unidentified artist’s (?) monogram, “I
S” or “S I”, in black ink at upper centre.

Paint is applied thinly in opaque and semi-transparent
layers over a thin white ground. Infrared reflectography
examination revealed a rapidly executed, sketchy dark
underdrawing in a dry medium, probably black chalk,
loosely delineating the main features of the landscape,
trees, clouds, road and buildings (Fig. 2). The staffage of
figures and horses was painted, without prior drawing,
directly over the landscape. Pentimenti during the painting
stage occur, for example, in the rooflines of the houses
at right of centre, some of which were initially taller.
The painting is in excellent condition. A slightly discoloured
layer of old varnish is present. Slight abrasion
and small losses of the paint and ground layers are visible
along the edges; scattered small losses also occur
throughout the sky.

Provenance: Donated by Mr. and Mrs. John Agelin,
Stockholm 1979.

Bibliography: NM Bulletin 4, no.1 (1980), p. 8 (as
Jacques Savery); NM Cat. 1990, p. 325 (as Jacques Savery
I); Essen/Vienna/Antwerp 1997/1998, p. 238 (under
cat. no. 67) [K. Ertz].

A road running beside a village leads to a watering-place
in the foreground on the left, where horses and a wagon
are depicted knee-deep in the water, while a herd of cattle
is about to enter; several riders, a horse-drawn covered
wagon and travellers on foot, a fashionably dressed
company as well as peasants, move along the wide road
in the foreground on the right. In the distance, the road
continues through flat, open country.

This painting entered the collection – erroneously –
as a work by the Dutch landscapist and genre painter
Jacob Savery I, whose works are extremely rare. Landscapes
with similar views of a country road with travellers
near a village were a common theme in the work
of the Brueghel family. It is seen notably in Jan I
Brueghel’s Landscape with a Village Inn of c. 1615 in
Munich (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte
Pinakothek)1 and a composition, signed and dated
1616, in London (Wellington Museum), of which the
present painting is a free copy – differing from the
original mainly in the staffage of figures and animals.2 A
miniature copy of rather mediocre quality, in composition
and narrative detail immediately recognizable as
being loosely in the style of Jan Brueghel I, the painting
is not sufficiently fine to be attributed to Brueghel
himself or his studio, and can only be the work of an
unidentified 17th-century follower or imitator.3
Although clearly derived from Jan’s composition, the
freely executed underdrawing (see Technical Notes)
indicates that it is more of an “original” work, or pastiche,
than a straight copy.

In addition to his panoramic “world landscapes”,
Brueghel also painted more intimate, small-scale
paintings with views of villages and of roads running
through dense forests or open country reminiscent of
his native Brabant, in the 16th-century Netherlandish
landscape tradition, that of his father, Pieter Bruegel I
and the so-called “Master of the Small Landscapes”.
The latter’s two series of etchings, published in 1559
and 1561 (Holl. III, nos. 19-93), formerly attributed to
Pieter Bruegel I, depict self-contained close-up views
of Flemish villages with peasant dwellings, often
aligned parallel to the picture plane. Jan opens up the
picture space by introducing roads that lead into the
distance. The rich staffage of figures and animals, moving
along the diagonal axis of the road, enlivens the
composition and increases the impression of depth.
According to a favoured compositional scheme, half of
the picture space – usually the left half – is occupied by
trees and houses, while the other half of the composition
opens up to a wide view of a distant landscape.
Wheelock connects this new type of landscape composition
to Brueghel’s journey to Holland c. 1613,
where he might have come into contact with a new,
more realistic conception of landscape painting.4
CF

1 Oil on copper, 32 x 44.5 cm, Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,
Alte Pinakothek, inv. no. 826; see Renger 2002, p. 109, illus.; and
Essen/Vienna 2003, cat. no. 70, repr. in colour on p. 201 [K. Renger].
2 Oil on copper, 25.5 x 36.5 cm, signed “BRVEGHEL 1616”, London,
Wellington Museum, Apsley House, inv. no. WM 1634-1948; see Ertz
1979, pp. 69, 70, 81, 82, 89, 151, 480, 608 no. 306, colour pl. 43, fig. 63
(det.); and Vienna/Essen/Antwerp 1997/1998, pp. 237–238 no. 67, repr.
in colour on p. 239 [K. Ertz].
3 The inscription in an old hand on the verso of the painting’s support, the
letters “I S” in ligature, is unlikely to be an authentic artist’s signature (see
Technical Notes). It has so far not been possible to identify this monogram.
4 See Washington/Cincinnati 1988/1989, under cat. no. 18 [A. Wheelock].
Jan Brueghel I. Circle of
46. Landscape with a Road through
a Village
Oil on oak, 27.1 x 37.9
Signed (lower right corner): […] 16(?)09
NM 370
technical notes: The painting’s support is an oak
panel (±0.4 cm thick) constructed of a single radial board
with horizontal grain. The panel has been thinned, and a
cradle was attached in 1965. Partial bevelling occurs
along the left, right and bottom edges on the back.
Exposed worm holes and tunnels are visible on the back
concentrated to a broad horizontal band across the centre.
Three corners of the panel slightly damaged, and a
small piece of wood missing at the lower right corner.
Varnish has been applied to the back of the panel. Dendrochronological
examination and analysis have determined
a felling date for the tree between c. 1589 and
1599. The wood originates from the Baltic region.
Under the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings
and a minimum of 2 years for seasoning of the wood, the
most plausible date for use of the panel would be 1597 or
later.
Paint is applied over a pale flesh-coloured ground in
thin, opaque layers with minimal brushmarking. Examination
with infrared reflectography did not reveal any
evidence of underdrawing.
Abrasion, wear and small losses of paint and ground
are found along all four edges. Discoloured retouching
covers scattered minor losses and abrasion, particularly
in the sky. More extensive retouching occurs throughout
the foreground area, in the open yard and farmhouses.
An aged varnish layer is present. The painting underwent
conservation treatment in 1957 and 1965.
provenance: Johan Gustaf Netzel, Stockholm, until
1867; bequeathed by J. G. Netzel in 1867, no. 9 (as Jan
Brueghel I); KM 1861/1867, no. 1401.

Exhibited: Stockholm 2010, no. 41.

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 25 (as Jan Brueghel
I); Sander IV, p. 136; Göthe 1887, p. 35 (as Jan Brueghel
I); Göthe 1893, p. 43; Granberg 1911–1913, II, p. 4 (as
Jan Brueghel I); NM Cat. 1958, p. 30 (as Jan Brueghel I);
NM Cat. 1990, p. 58 (as circle of Jan Brueghel I).

A country road winds its way through a typical Flemish
village, with rustic peasant houses tucked away
amongst the trees and a church tower visible in the
distance on the right. A shepherd with his flock and a
farm cart move along the road; other travellers and villagers
gather outside an inn on the right.
In the subject, composition and narrative detail, this
painting is close to Jan Brueghel I in a work such as the
signed Village Street of 1610 now in Munich (Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pina kothek).1
In the period following his return from Italy, during
the 1600s – in addition to his panoramic “world landscapes
– Jan began to paint more intimate views of
Flemish villages, with a low horizon line and of country
roads with travellers running through dense forests
or open country reminiscent of his native Brabant.
Jan’s village views with peasant houses amongst trees
on either side of a road are ultimately derived from an
earlier Netherlandish tradition, of his father, Pieter
Bruegel I, and the anonymous “Master of the Small
Landscapes”.2 In the latter’s two series of landscape
etchings (Holl. III, nos. 19-93) with self-contained,
close-up views of villages and rustic farm buildings,
drawn naer het leven in the environs of Antwerp, and
published in 1559 and 1561 by Hieronymus Cock, the
houses are usually arranged parallel to the picture
plane. However, a few examples already display the
wedge-shaped composition with a frontal view of a
road leading into the interior of a village later adapted
by Jan.3 In his own works Jan frequently opened up
the picture space by introducing a well-travelled country
road leading into the distance, thus increasing the
impression of depth.
The early dendrochronological date of the panel
seems to indicate that the present painting is approximately
contemporary with Jan Brueghel I, but the
painting is coarse in quality and can only be the work
of a follower or imitator. The – spurious – signature
reported in the earliest literature on the painting (see
Göthe 1887) has now become illegible and only the
date “1609” can still be read. This date could conceivably
correspond to an unidentified original by
Brueghel. An attribution to Jan Brueghel II might be
considered.
CF

1 Oil on copper, 8.1 x 12.7 cm, signed “BRVEGHEL 1610”, Munich, Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, inv. no. 2860; for
which see Ertz 1979, pp. 79, 218, 594 no. 217, fig. 269; and Renger and
Denk 2002, p. 129, illus.
2 For a discussion of Jan I Brueghel’s village landscapes, see Ertz 1979, pp.
214–228.
3 Earlier attributed to Pieter Bruegel I. Etching and engraving, 134 x 202
mm, after the “Master of the Small Landscapes”, from the series Praediorum
villarum et rusticarum casularum icones elegantissimae ad vivum in aere
deformatae, published by Hieronymus Cock in 1561, Vienna, Graphische
Sammlungen der Albertina, Inv. no. HB 56.3, fol. 20, 1957/181; see
Bastelaer 1908, no. 55; and Vienna/Essen 2003, cat.nos. 27–30, repr. on
p. 95.
[End]

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