(Antwerp 1601–1678) and
Pieter van Avont
(Malines 1600–1652 Antwerp)
The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in a landscape,
oil on panel, 52 x 77 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Brussels;
Galerie de Jonckheere, Brussels (1976);
Private collection, Brussels;
sale, Koller, Zurich, 30 March 2001, lot 18A (as Jan van Kessel);
Private collection, Germany;
Private collection, Belgium

The present painting is accompanied by a detailed certificate written by Klaus Ertz, dated April 2014.

Ertz writes: ‘The greenish blue colours typical of Jan Brueghel the Younger, have been thickly applied in overlapping glazes in an impasto manner giving a glowing and fresh impression. Such tonal values, are characteristic of the 1630s, which is when I believe this painting was made […]. As the painting to be assessed is neither signed nor dated – which is mostly the case – it needs to be stylistically related to other authentic works for affirmation.̍ For that purpose and in order to establish a possible date of execution, Ertz compares the present painting to the following works by Jan Brueghel II:

(1) The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist in a wooded landscape (Galerie Frye & Sohn, Münster, together with Hendrik van Balen, 1626);
(2) The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist in a wooded landscape (private collection, together with Pieter van Avont, 1630s);
(3) The Holy Family with the Infant Baptist (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. 1683, together with Pieter van Avont, 1630s);
(4) Flora in a Garden (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. 1692, with Pieter van Avont, 1630s)

Klaus Ertz continues: 'Only from the mid-1630s did he [Jan Brueghel II] developed his own style of painting which is indicated in the present composition. His style primarily differs from that of his father in that he used more subdued colours, furthermore his brushwork is more painterly and vivacious. The fact that several painters collaborated in his compositions is not surprising for Flemish painting. In the early 17th century it was not unusual, especially in Antwerp, that several artists, each specialising in a different genre, work together, producing results that today seem to be surprisingly homogeneous.' In the present composition, the landscape, the flowers, the fruit and the animals are by Jan Brueghel II, while Pieter van Avont painted the figures. Especially for biblical subjects and even more so for Marian themes, Brueghel turned to the figure painter Pieter van Avont for support from the 1630s onwards.

Klaus Ertz will include the present painting in his forthcoming revised catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Jan Brueghel II.