Lot 11: Pieter Brueghel II (Brussels 1564/5-1637/8 Antwerp)

A winter townscene with skaters on a frozen river by a bird trap, a view of Antwerp beyond indistinctly signed 'P.BREVG...' (lower right) oil on panel 14 7/8 x 21 5/8 in. (37.8 x 54.9 cm.) PROVENANCE with Robert Lebel, Paris, 1935. with E. Slatter, London, before 1944. Percy B. Meyer, 28 July 1944. LITERATURE G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, p. 245, no. 35. K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jngere, 1988-2000, II, p. 624, no. F761 (see note, below). EXHIBITION Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Museum, 1995-2000, on loan. NOTES The composition of this picture is one of the most enduringly popular of the Brueghel family. The prototype is often thought to be the painting in the Mus‚es Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; however, as Klaus Ertz points out in his recent monograph on Pieter Brueghel II ( op. cit., p. 576), the attribution of that work to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose signature and date it bears, is not beyond dispute. He believes, instead, that the prototype may be a lost work by Jan Brueghel I, inspired by his father's famous Hunters in the Snow of 1565 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). The distinctive beauty of the composition derives from the introduction of the unusual bird trap theme above the view of villagers at play on the ice - a scene inspired by that in the middle ground of the Hunters in the Snow. Ertz describes it as a simple, genre-like landscape; however this to a degree underestimates the inventiveness and originality displayed in the as-yet-unidentified protoype. It has been suggested that the underlying subject of the picture is the precariousness of life, with the obliviousness of the birds towards the threat of the trap mirrored by the carefree play of the skaters upon the fragile ice. In the catalogue of the exhibition Le SiŠcle de Brueghel (Brussels, Mus‚es Royaux des Beaux-Arts, 27 September-24 November 1963, p. 69) Georges Marlier identified the village depicted as Pede-Ste-Anne in Brabant. The attribution of the present picture to Pieter Brueghel II was accepted by Dr. Friedl„nder, formerly of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Dr. Gratama of the Frans Halsmuseum and Marlier ( loc. cit. ). Klaus Ertz listed it in his monograph ( loc. cit. ) under questionable pictures as no. F671; Dr. Ertz's opinion was, however, provisional, having not seen the picture. It was shown to him in person on 14 March 2001, and he has subsequently accepted the picture in full, regarding it as 'a top quality picture of the Bird Trap theme by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, on the level of the best museum pieces... The signature bottom right I read as "P.BREVG...", indicating a secure dating to after 1616.'.