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Lot Essay
The composition follows that by Pieter Brueghel II, of which there are nine known fully autograph versions, including those in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (inv. no. 911) and the Schöborn Collection, Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden (inv. no. 71); beside the present picture, only seventeen other examples by followers of the artist are known (see K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen, 2000, II, pp. 716-21, nos. 889-915).
Of all their compositions, depictions of weddings and dances are arguably the most celebrated works of the Brueghel family; of their varied subjects, however, these are amongst the most uncertain in invention. The earliest known such works are of course the Vienna Peasant Dance and Wedding Feast by Pieter Breugel I, but the differences between those compositions and the Wedding Dance in the Open Air and Wedding Dance in the Barn by Pieter II are such that they are not seen as more than precursors to the son's works. Instead the direct prototype for both latter types is seen to be the engraving by Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter I of A Wedding Dance in the Open Air that was published by Hieronymus Cock; a derivation from the same source is also known by Jan Brueghel I (Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts). The earliest known paintings of that subject by Pieter II are those in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, both of which are signed and dated 1607.
It has been suggested that Pieter I's original, on which the engraving is based, is the painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts, dated 1566. Accepted in full in the past, the question of that painting's authenticity has recently been re-examined. Klaus Ertz, in his monograph on Pieter II (op. cit.), notes that in his opinion it is more likely to be a contemporary copy of a lost work, possibly by Maerten van Cleve, and suggests that Pieter I's original was either a drawing or an as-yet unknown painting. Either way, both brothers, although retaining many of the motifs of their father's composition, adapted the source for their own designs. The present compositional type would appear to be such an adaptation, rather than a copy of a Pieter I prototype, set within the barn interior of the latter's Vienna Wedding Feast. The version in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia, once regarded as the prototype by Pieter I, and by Georges Marlier as either the earliest version or the prototype by Pieter II (Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, pp. 205-7), was catalogued by Ertz as a work by a later follower.
Of all their compositions, depictions of weddings and dances are arguably the most celebrated works of the Brueghel family; of their varied subjects, however, these are amongst the most uncertain in invention. The earliest known such works are of course the Vienna Peasant Dance and Wedding Feast by Pieter Breugel I, but the differences between those compositions and the Wedding Dance in the Open Air and Wedding Dance in the Barn by Pieter II are such that they are not seen as more than precursors to the son's works. Instead the direct prototype for both latter types is seen to be the engraving by Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter I of A Wedding Dance in the Open Air that was published by Hieronymus Cock; a derivation from the same source is also known by Jan Brueghel I (Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts). The earliest known paintings of that subject by Pieter II are those in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, both of which are signed and dated 1607.
It has been suggested that Pieter I's original, on which the engraving is based, is the painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts, dated 1566. Accepted in full in the past, the question of that painting's authenticity has recently been re-examined. Klaus Ertz, in his monograph on Pieter II (op. cit.), notes that in his opinion it is more likely to be a contemporary copy of a lost work, possibly by Maerten van Cleve, and suggests that Pieter I's original was either a drawing or an as-yet unknown painting. Either way, both brothers, although retaining many of the motifs of their father's composition, adapted the source for their own designs. The present compositional type would appear to be such an adaptation, rather than a copy of a Pieter I prototype, set within the barn interior of the latter's Vienna Wedding Feast. The version in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia, once regarded as the prototype by Pieter I, and by Georges Marlier as either the earliest version or the prototype by Pieter II (Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, pp. 205-7), was catalogued by Ertz as a work by a later follower.