Bartolomeus Breenbergh* (1598-1657)

The present painting was probably painted shortly after Breenbergh's return from Rome to Amsterdam circa 1630. It can be compared with a Landscape with the gathering of Manna in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, dated by Marcel Roethlisberger to circa 1630-2 (see M. Roethlisberger, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, The Paintings, 1981, pp. 59-60, no. 136), and with Mercury and Herse, which was withdrawn from sale, Sotheby's, London, Dec. 12, 1990, lot 41 dated by Malcolm Waddingham to circa 1631.

Roethlisberger (op. cit., p. 57) describes the engraving of the present lot as after 'a fine painting by Breenbergh from the early 1630s, perhaps of medium size'.

We are grateful to Prof. Roethlisberger for verbally confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.