Wooded landscape with a stream

The drawing repeats a composition on a sheet by Jan Brueghel at Weimar (inv. KK 4517; see Jan Brueghel. A Magnificent Draughtsman, exhib. cat., Antwerp, Snijders&Rockox House, 2019, no. 41). Drawings by Brueghel were often copied during his lifetime, often by artists in the master’s own circle. When it was in Richardson’s collection this sheet was believed to be by Peter Brueghel.

The theme of travel features prominently in Jan Brueghel’s work and the motif of the traveler crossing a river on a wooden bridge was a favorite in Netherlandish art at the beginning of the 17th Century.