Head of a landsknecht; and Head of a woman

Portrait heads of this type are rare in the surviving oeuvre of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, with Klaus Ertz listing only six in his catalogue raisonné (cf. K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38): die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen, 2000, II, nos. 1376-1381). These previously unpublished panels are, therefore, particularly significant additions to the painter’s work. Both the pictures are signed with the painter’s initials, though the final ‘B’ of that included in the Head of a woman is now only visible in the infra-red reflectogram (available on request).

The Head of a landsknecht, which exists in another version in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (ibid., p. 962, no. 1379), dates to circa 1616, the year in which all of the other known ‘portrait’ roundels were produced. The composition appears to derive from a head included in the kings’ retinue in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Adoration of the Magi (National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG3556) perhaps indicative of a sketch which may have existed in the Bruegel/Brueghel workshops. In comparison to the Montpellier picture, the present work shows a more spontaneous handling of paint, especially in the vivid, impasto highlights of the feathered hat and white ruff. The Head of a peasant woman is an especially important addition to the group as the only known portrait roundel of a female subject by the painter. Klaus Ertz has dated it to a little before 1616, and emphasised the clear stylistic affinities it shares with the work of Marten van Cleve (K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Marten van Cleve 1525-1581: Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Lingen, 2014, nos. 181-186).

Given the homogeneity in style, composition and size, the roundels presumably came from the same group or sequence of pictures. Brueghel’s works are often typified by their proverbial, moralising subjects and these types of ideas have consequently often been applied to the ‘portrait’ roundels. As such, Gaston van Camp suggested in an article of 1954 that the Head of a man in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux (inv. no. 7100,), the Head of a yawning man in Brussels (Musées des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, inv. no. 6509) and the Montpellier Landsknecht were part of a series depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (G. van Camp, ‘Pierre Bruegel a-t-il peint une série des Sept Péchés capitaux?’, Revue Belge d’Archéologie et de l’Histoire de l’Art, XXIII, 1954, pp. 217-223). Thus the Bordeaux picture of a man in black was considered as a representation of Avarice; the Brussels picture as Sloth and the Montpellier picture as Anger. Such a group representing the Deadly Sins is certainly not beyond the bounds of Brueghel’s iconographic range, though the lack of other surviving examples which could be added to the series makes a definite conclusion difficult. With reference to the present (and Montpellier) landsknecht comparison can also be drawn with a circa 1595-1599 engraving by Pieter de Jode I, after designs by Marten de Vos, depicting the Choleric Temperament (fig. 1). As with Brueghel’s roundels, the choleric in de Jode’s print is a landsknecht wearing an elaborately plumed hat and a long drooping moustache. The proximity of composition and expression make an association between the two convincing, and perhaps strengthens the proposed identification of Brueghel’s landsknecht as a personification of Anger or the Choler. The Head of a woman remains a little more elusive to interpretation. If, however, the landsknecht can indeed be associated with the Choleric temperament, it may be possible that she was intended as the Phlegmatic, characterised by an apathetic personality (perhaps referenced by the woman’s calm, neutral expression) and habitually associated with women in the seventeenth century.

This lot is sold with copies of certificates for each picture by Dr. Klaus Ertz, dated 18 April 2017 and 21 April 2017, confirming the attributions.