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Lot Essay
This previously unpublished painting is one of a group of depictions of the composition by Jan Breughel II after an invention of his father, Jan Breughel I. It is not known for sure which painting by the latter served as the prototype for the composition, but it was almost certainly that painted as one of a series of the four elements painted for his great patron Cardinal Federico Borromeo in 1608-11. There remains in the collection of the Cardinal's great foundation, the Ambrosiana in Milan, a single Allegory of Water by Jan I (although a different composition from that of the present painting), but no series of all four compositions. Klaus Ertz, in his catalogue raisonné of Jan I's oeuvre (Cologne, 1979) suggested that the Cardinal's series is possibly that in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome (inv. nos. 322, 328, 332 and 348), and - as the only known set by the father - this remains the most likely possibility.
Two complete versions of the series by Jan II are known. Of those, the earlier would appear to be that in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons (inv. nos. 75-7) which Ertz, in his catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan II (Freren, 1984) dated to circa 1620: before the artist's trip to Italy and painted whilst still working in his father's studio. The second set, in a private collection, he dates to 1628 on the basis of a diary entry by the artist (op. cit., pp. 363-5, nos. 198-201, pls. 39-44); that dates them to after the artist's hurried return to the Netherlands in 1625, following his father's death from cholera that year. Back in Antwerp, Jan took over the running of his late father's workshop, selling the pictures left by his father and completing those half-finished before turning to his own output.
Several later versions of this composition - and the others of the series - are known by Jan II and his workshop, however Klaus Ertz dates the present painting to circa 1625: the year of the artist's return and generally regarded as being his finest period. As such it represents one of the artist's earliest independent depictions of the subject, painted when closest to his father in style and quality and contemporaneous with those unidentified works begun by the Jan I and finished posthumously by Jan II.
Two complete versions of the series by Jan II are known. Of those, the earlier would appear to be that in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons (inv. nos. 75-7) which Ertz, in his catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan II (Freren, 1984) dated to circa 1620: before the artist's trip to Italy and painted whilst still working in his father's studio. The second set, in a private collection, he dates to 1628 on the basis of a diary entry by the artist (op. cit., pp. 363-5, nos. 198-201, pls. 39-44); that dates them to after the artist's hurried return to the Netherlands in 1625, following his father's death from cholera that year. Back in Antwerp, Jan took over the running of his late father's workshop, selling the pictures left by his father and completing those half-finished before turning to his own output.
Several later versions of this composition - and the others of the series - are known by Jan II and his workshop, however Klaus Ertz dates the present painting to circa 1625: the year of the artist's return and generally regarded as being his finest period. As such it represents one of the artist's earliest independent depictions of the subject, painted when closest to his father in style and quality and contemporaneous with those unidentified works begun by the Jan I and finished posthumously by Jan II.