Travelers with carts and a wagon on a country road, a city beyond

This bright and sparkling scene, which appears to take place in autumn just as the leaves have begun to turn, is a fine example of Jan Brueghel II's ability to capture the myriad details of a sweeping vista on the intimate scale of a cabinet picture. The younger Brueghel's paintings frequently employ motifs devised by his father, and indeed this beautifully-preserved copper owes much to the expansive landscapes developed by Jan Brueghel I. Arguably his finest pictures in the genre, wide-angled or 'broad' landscapes most likely emerged in Jan Brueghel I's series of pictures showing The road to market, of which the earliest known painted example dates to 1601 (formerly with Kaplan, London, 1956).