Peasants fighting in a farmyard

The present work connects with Rubens's drawing in Rotterdam (see Burchard and d'Hulst, op. cit., no. 143), which is after a lost painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, completed by Jan Mostaert. The composition was engraved in reverse by Lucas Vosterman (see Muller, op cit., pl. 65), and Marlier (op. cit., pp. 271-273) lists twenty copies attributed by him to Jan Breughel I or Pieter Brueghel II. A copy by Rubens made after a drawing by Brueghel is listed as no. 143 of the Specification of paintings in Rubens's house after his death (see Muller, op cit., p. 120, no. 143). This is presumed to be after the lost Brueghel painting. The present work is accepted by Burchard and d'Hulst, loc cit.; another version is referred to by Muller as in a private collection, Brussels; he states that 'either picture could be identified with no. 143 of the specification'. Vosterman's engraving shows the fight in a village street, not a farmyard, and no startled peasant in a barn door nearby.