Lot Essay
For other versions, see, for instance, G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, 1969, pp.239-51, the picture sold in these Rooms, 14 Dec. 1990, lot 82, and the painting sold at Phillips, 16 April 1991, lot 44. In the catalogue of the exhibition Le Siècle de Brueghel, Musées Royaux de Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 27 Sept.-24 Nov. 1963, p.69, Marlier identified the village depicted as Pede-Ste-Anne in Brabant.
According to family tradition, the present picture is thought to have come into the possession of the Swabey family through the marriage in 1751 of the present owner's ancestor, Samuel Swabey, who controlled considerable pottery interests on the banks of the Thames at Westminster between 1750 and 1790, and Mary Birchfield, the only daughter and heir of Maurice Birchfield, an officer in the Duke of Marlborough's army in Flanders who later became Usher of the Black Rod in Ireland. Succeeding generations, all barristers-at-law, remained at Langley Marish until the estate was sold in 1951, when the present picture was retained by the family
According to family tradition, the present picture is thought to have come into the possession of the Swabey family through the marriage in 1751 of the present owner's ancestor, Samuel Swabey, who controlled considerable pottery interests on the banks of the Thames at Westminster between 1750 and 1790, and Mary Birchfield, the only daughter and heir of Maurice Birchfield, an officer in the Duke of Marlborough's army in Flanders who later became Usher of the Black Rod in Ireland. Succeeding generations, all barristers-at-law, remained at Langley Marish until the estate was sold in 1951, when the present picture was retained by the family