September - The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree; and October - The Parable of the Vineyard

Abel Grimmer is chiefly celebrated today for his lively depictions of the Months and Seasons. On account of their similar dimensions, this assembled pair may plausibly belong to the same now-dispersed set of the Months, only one of which was known to Reine de Bertier de Sauvigny at the time of her catalogue raisonné (loc. cit.). Trained in the workshop of his father, Jacob, Abel perpetuated the family’s prestigious legacy in the landscape tradition. Jacob made a significant contribution to the Netherlandish landscape tradition and is credited with being one of the first painters to break with the panoramic format that had been pioneered by his predecessor, Joachim Patinir. Abel ran one of the most prosperous and acclaimed studios in Antwerp at the turn of the seventeenth century, producing hundreds of works inspired by the example of his father, Bruegel the Elder and Hans Bol, whose popular compositions he modified and revitalized. Indeed, Abel’s source here is probably a series of engraved roundels by Adriaen Collaert after drawings by Hans Bol (Hollstein 66-77). Collaert’s engraved depictions of September and October likewise feature figures engaged in the harvest with similar compositions.

The present paintings are variations on Abel’s September and October from an intact series of somewhat larger paintings dated 1592 (Church of Notre-Dame, Montfaucon; see R. de Bertier de Sauvigny, op. cit., pp. 190-197, no. III). As with this pair, the works in the Montfaucon series are inscribed with references to the Biblical scenes they reproduce.