Lot 47: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (Brussels c.1564-1637 Antwerp)

A forest landscape with hunters and dogs oil on panel 143/4 x 24 5/8 in. (37.5 x 62.5 cm.) PROVENANCE With Gallery St”cklin, Basel, from whom purchased by the father of the present owner before 1960. NOTES Dr. Klaus Ertz, in a certificate dated August 2002 confirms the attribution to Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and dates the present painting to circa 1605-10. He notes that, unusually, this landscape is derived from a composition by the artist's brother, Jan Brueghel the Elder, that is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and which he dates to circa 1595 (see K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jngere: Die Gem„lde mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen, 2000, II, p. 944, fig. 747) and is not based on a work by his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Ertz lists another version of this composition in a private American collection (Ertz, op. cit., II, p. 952, no. F1372, illustrated on p. 943, fig. 745). Ertz also writes that, typical for these early works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, are the two almost bare, dead-looking trees and the almost frayed effect of the leaves on the trees, which hang perfectly still in the absence of any wind. He compares the paintings to three other paintings executed by the artist of similar date (Ertz, op. cit., nos. 1367, 1106 and 1241).