(Antwerp 1564–1635)
A hilly landscape with a village by a river,
oil on panel, 45 x 80.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Ex Collection Conte Bartolomeo Arese, Milan (according to an inscription on the reverse)

The present painting comes with an original certificate issued by Klaus Ertz (April 2015). Ertz writes: “After thorough examination of this painting I am convinced that it is an original work by the Flemish master Josse de Momper, which, dating from the 1590s, is very well preserved. What speaks in favour of this early period besides the spectator’s elevated viewpoint is the creation of a spatial impression that has been achieved by the overlapping and staggering of separate planes that have been distinctly outlined and painted without transitions in a manner that can already be observed at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The dark foreground is sharply set off against the water behind and the hills in the background, which is separated from the sky by a curved line. The white highlights along the edges of the leaves and houses, standing out so that they can be felt with one’s fingertips, are typical of Momper’s art particularly in his early period.”