.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Dated by Klaus Ertz to the late 1620s, this is one of three eponymous works from that period that he groups together (loc. cit.). The other two are that measuring 19 x 33 in., sold by Koller, Zurich, 29 November 1978, lot 5293 (£31,530), and that measuring 32¼ x 56 in., sold from the Drury-Lowe collection, Locko Park, Sotheby's, London, 6 December 1995, lot 36 (£720,000). Typical of de Momper's style of this period is the confident freedom of the application of paint - a looseness of style that admirably conveys the sweeping extent of the landscape depicted.
Although often defined as an 'allegory' of summer, such a description is misleading. Although the individual depictions of Seasons were often painted as parts of a series, they should rather be understood as representations, or ideals, of the relevant season. The tradition derives from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's iconic series of the months, of 1565: the present work, therefore, looks back to the Hay Making in the National Gallery, Prague. Probably the finest surviving set of the Seasons by De Momper is that in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Brunswick.
Ertz dates the first of de Momper's summer landscapes, or Corn Harvests, to the latter half of the first decade of the seventeenth century. Their popularity amongst his contemporaries is evident: the 1614 inventory of the collection of Philips van Valckenisse in Antwerp, for example, lists no less than five heykens ('hay harvests') by de Momper.
Although often defined as an 'allegory' of summer, such a description is misleading. Although the individual depictions of Seasons were often painted as parts of a series, they should rather be understood as representations, or ideals, of the relevant season. The tradition derives from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's iconic series of the months, of 1565: the present work, therefore, looks back to the Hay Making in the National Gallery, Prague. Probably the finest surviving set of the Seasons by De Momper is that in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Brunswick.
Ertz dates the first of de Momper's summer landscapes, or Corn Harvests, to the latter half of the first decade of the seventeenth century. Their popularity amongst his contemporaries is evident: the 1614 inventory of the collection of Philips van Valckenisse in Antwerp, for example, lists no less than five heykens ('hay harvests') by de Momper.