Lot Essay
The landscape of the present painting is typical of the mature style of Joos de Momper, while the figures are by Jan Brueghel the Younger.
The friendship between Jan Brueghel the Younger's father, Brueghel the Elder, and de Momper is well known. As early as 1612-3, Jan Brueghel I claimed to have painted the figures in six paintings by de Momper, in addition to the staffage for a series of the Four Seasons (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der ltere (1568-1625), 1979, p. 470, note 832). In a letter to Ercole Bianchi in 1622, penned on Brueghel's behalf by Rubens, Brueghel specifically referred to de Momper as 'Mio amico Momper', and, as Franz first pointed out (H.G. Franz, Landschaftsbilder als kollektive Werkstattschpfungen in der flmischen Malerei des 16. und frhen 17. Jahrhunderts, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Institutes der Universitt Graz, 18, 1982, pp. 174-7), collaborative works by the two artists were sufficiently common to appear with dual labels in David Teniers II's Kunstkammer paintings. Moreover, one of the best known pictures produced by the two artists also depicts A Market and Bleaching Fields (Madrid, Museo del Prado) and is dated to the later years of collaboration, circa 1621-22, by Diz Padrn, Ertz and Peter Sutton (M. Diz Padrn, Museo del Prado, catalogo de pinturas, I: escuela flamenca; K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jngere. Die Gemlde mit kritischem Oeuvre-Katalog, 1986, p. 200; and P.C. Sutton, The Age of Rubens, 1993, pp. 474-7).
Ertz, who intends to publish the present work in a future addendum to the catalogue of paintings by Joos de Momper, believes it should also be dated to the same period, 'around 1620' (in a certificate dated 15 June 1993). He agrees that the wide, sweeping brush strokes, streaky coloring, finely applied contours, use of white highlights, yellow and blood red, and the coloristic arrangement of the landscape into broadly two planes of brown foreground tones and blue toned background are 'characteristic features of the "mature" Momper around 1620'. Similarly, the staffage by Jan Brueghel the Younger is particularly fine in quality, painted in the form and style of his father, and indicates a date of around 1620 when the younger Brueghel was still working in his father's studio, before his departure for Rome in May 1622.
The quality of the figures can be compared to the artist's views of Court Ladies Making Hay and The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia in the Park of Mariemont (Madrid, Museo del Prado), which Ertz dates to the same period, adding that 'it cannot be ruled out that the father lent a hand, especially in the excellent staffage which, in spite of its quality ... can hardly have been done by the father himself' (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der Jngere (1601-1678), 1984, I, pp. 261-3, nos. 82-3).
It is impossible to ascertain with any certitude which of the two views of Bleaching Fields produced by de Momper with Brueghel the Younger or Elder may have been painted first, but they do clearly provide a fascinating example of the close collaborative atmosphere at work in Brueghel the Elder's studio at the time. Further examples of Brueghel the Younger's collaboration with de Momper are also dated to around the same period by Ertz (see for example, Ertz, op. cit., 1986, pp. 136, 264, 269, 271, 296, 395, 555, and 572-3, nos. 335 and 378-80, figs. 121, 295, 305 and 497).
The subject of bleaching fields was frequently used in the collaborations of de Momper and the elder Brueghel in paintings juxtaposing Winter and Spring, or depicting Spring in a series of the Four Seasons (P.C. Sutton, op. cit., p. 476). In the 1640s, David Teniers also painted bleaching fields, probably due to the influence of de Momper and the Brueghels (see, for instance, David Teniers' The Bleaching Grounds, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham). Later, Dutch painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Vermeer van Haarlem, and Jan van Kessel painted panoramic landscapes with views of bleaching fields, which has led subsequent commentators to hypothesize regarding the symbolism of the subject matter. Peter Sutton, however, in his essay on the Madrid picture by Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel I, stresses that 'the Flemish images of bleaching grounds by Jan Brueghel and Teniers represent an alternative pictorial tradition in which the scale of the figures and buildings is bigger and the largely imaginary topography represents no specific village or town ... while bleaching was a lucrative business in the Southern Netherlands, its imagery has less to do with the celebration of local industry than with the traditional depiction of seasonal village occupations' (P.C. Sutton, op. cit., pp. 476-7).
The friendship between Jan Brueghel the Younger's father, Brueghel the Elder, and de Momper is well known. As early as 1612-3, Jan Brueghel I claimed to have painted the figures in six paintings by de Momper, in addition to the staffage for a series of the Four Seasons (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der ltere (1568-1625), 1979, p. 470, note 832). In a letter to Ercole Bianchi in 1622, penned on Brueghel's behalf by Rubens, Brueghel specifically referred to de Momper as 'Mio amico Momper', and, as Franz first pointed out (H.G. Franz, Landschaftsbilder als kollektive Werkstattschpfungen in der flmischen Malerei des 16. und frhen 17. Jahrhunderts, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Institutes der Universitt Graz, 18, 1982, pp. 174-7), collaborative works by the two artists were sufficiently common to appear with dual labels in David Teniers II's Kunstkammer paintings. Moreover, one of the best known pictures produced by the two artists also depicts A Market and Bleaching Fields (Madrid, Museo del Prado) and is dated to the later years of collaboration, circa 1621-22, by Diz Padrn, Ertz and Peter Sutton (M. Diz Padrn, Museo del Prado, catalogo de pinturas, I: escuela flamenca; K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jngere. Die Gemlde mit kritischem Oeuvre-Katalog, 1986, p. 200; and P.C. Sutton, The Age of Rubens, 1993, pp. 474-7).
Ertz, who intends to publish the present work in a future addendum to the catalogue of paintings by Joos de Momper, believes it should also be dated to the same period, 'around 1620' (in a certificate dated 15 June 1993). He agrees that the wide, sweeping brush strokes, streaky coloring, finely applied contours, use of white highlights, yellow and blood red, and the coloristic arrangement of the landscape into broadly two planes of brown foreground tones and blue toned background are 'characteristic features of the "mature" Momper around 1620'. Similarly, the staffage by Jan Brueghel the Younger is particularly fine in quality, painted in the form and style of his father, and indicates a date of around 1620 when the younger Brueghel was still working in his father's studio, before his departure for Rome in May 1622.
The quality of the figures can be compared to the artist's views of Court Ladies Making Hay and The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia in the Park of Mariemont (Madrid, Museo del Prado), which Ertz dates to the same period, adding that 'it cannot be ruled out that the father lent a hand, especially in the excellent staffage which, in spite of its quality ... can hardly have been done by the father himself' (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der Jngere (1601-1678), 1984, I, pp. 261-3, nos. 82-3).
It is impossible to ascertain with any certitude which of the two views of Bleaching Fields produced by de Momper with Brueghel the Younger or Elder may have been painted first, but they do clearly provide a fascinating example of the close collaborative atmosphere at work in Brueghel the Elder's studio at the time. Further examples of Brueghel the Younger's collaboration with de Momper are also dated to around the same period by Ertz (see for example, Ertz, op. cit., 1986, pp. 136, 264, 269, 271, 296, 395, 555, and 572-3, nos. 335 and 378-80, figs. 121, 295, 305 and 497).
The subject of bleaching fields was frequently used in the collaborations of de Momper and the elder Brueghel in paintings juxtaposing Winter and Spring, or depicting Spring in a series of the Four Seasons (P.C. Sutton, op. cit., p. 476). In the 1640s, David Teniers also painted bleaching fields, probably due to the influence of de Momper and the Brueghels (see, for instance, David Teniers' The Bleaching Grounds, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham). Later, Dutch painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Vermeer van Haarlem, and Jan van Kessel painted panoramic landscapes with views of bleaching fields, which has led subsequent commentators to hypothesize regarding the symbolism of the subject matter. Peter Sutton, however, in his essay on the Madrid picture by Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel I, stresses that 'the Flemish images of bleaching grounds by Jan Brueghel and Teniers represent an alternative pictorial tradition in which the scale of the figures and buildings is bigger and the largely imaginary topography represents no specific village or town ... while bleaching was a lucrative business in the Southern Netherlands, its imagery has less to do with the celebration of local industry than with the traditional depiction of seasonal village occupations' (P.C. Sutton, op. cit., pp. 476-7).