Pieter Brueghel II (Brussels c. 1564-1637/8 Antwerp)

The Return from the Kermesse

Details

Pieter Brueghel II (Brussels c. 1564-1637/8 Antwerp)
The Return from the Kermesse
oil on panel
15.3/8 x 22½ in. (39 x 57.1 cm.)

Provenance

with Galerie de Heuvel, Brussels, from whom purchased by Baron Evence III Coppée (1882-1945), and displayed in the Coppée mansion on the Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, Brussels.
Coppée collection; Phillips, London, 8 December 1992, lot 53 (£275,000 to the present owner).

Literature

G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, pp. 394-395 and fig. 244 and p. 346, no. 1.
Leodico-Recherches, La Collection Coppée, Alleur, n.d., p. 56.

Exhibited

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brueghel Une Dynastie de Peintres, 1980, no. 99.

Lot Essay

This popular composition by Pieter Brueghel II, was probably the artist's own invention. The versions show differing details in the background; according to Marlier, the present composition is similar to that in the Prague National Gallery and that in a private collection, Madrid.

Klaus Ertz (catalogue of the exhibition Pieter Brueghel der Jngere - Jan Brueghel der Ältere Flämische Malerei um 1600 Tradition und Fortschritt, Villa Hgel, Essen, 1997, under no. 145), states that of the versions previously attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger, he will accept 18 in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné, 11 will be considered doubtful and 8 must be rejected. The present work is sold with a photostat of a certificate by Dr. Ertz, dated 16 March 1993, in which he concludes: 'Mit der Bestimmung "Eigenhändige Arbeit Pieter Brueghels d.J. entstanden nach 1616" werde ich dieses Gemälde in dem in Vorbereitung befindlichen Oeuvrekatalog der Gemälde Pieter Brueghels d.J. publizieren und abbilden.'

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