(Brussels 1564–1637/38 Antwerp)
A Couple Fishing,
oil on panel, diameter 19.1 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Monsieur de Dieudonné de Corbeek over Loo (from the early 19. century onwards);
Collection Monsieur de la Croix d’Ogimont;
and by descent to the present owner

The present painting is accompanied by a written report by Klaus Ertz (February 2015). Ertz writes: ‘The condition in which the present painting has been preserved can be described as good. The colours show their thick, original impasto. The small panel has been painted on in the glazing technique so typical of Flemish painting, with white highlights applied in a final step to the uppermost paint layer. […] The depiction illustrates a proverb of which I only know one further variant […], which is rarely the case in the art of Pieter Brueghel the Younger.’

In his certificate Ertz writes: ‘The painting to be assessed here belongs to a group of round panels in which a man and a woman pursue various activities as a couple. Almost all of these scenes have an erotic meaning, which, among other things, logically derives from the figures’ representation as a couple (see Ertz 2000, vol. 1, cats. E 153–E 181).’ This composition by Brueghel has so far only been known through a workshop replica, which in 1971 was in the Finck Gallery in Brussels (cf. K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, vol. I, Lingen, 1988/2000, p. 183, fig. 164, p. 219, no. E 170). On the replica and the composition’s meaning: ‘A tondo painted on panel that was offered for sale by Finck in Brussels in 1971 is a workshop replica based on a prototype by the master’s hand that is still unknown. Yet it certainly belongs to the group of Brueghel’s unpretentious little aphorisms alluding to the relationship between the sexes. A couple is shown seated on a riverbank, hidden behind shrubbery and rush. On her arm, the woman carries a picnic basket covered by a cloth. The man has just caught a fish, which he presents to her with his outstretched arm. In her left hand, the woman holds the fishing line between her index finger and thumb as if she were slightly picqued. […] What happens between these two people is alluded to in the form of several salacious hints whose hidden meaning must have been perfectly clear to the artist’s contemporaries. The gesture of the lady, who gingerly picks up the fishing line with a smiling face, is certainly comprehensible to everyone as it formally relates to the man’s hand in which he holds the fish. The way in which the painter has rendered the head of the fish is strongly reminiscent of the form of a penis. In a metaphorical sense, the man presents to the lady his sexual organ, by which he indicates his willingness to copulate. Whether he seriously courts the lady and has a permanent relationship in mind or merely a quick erotic adventure is left to the spectator’s imagination […].’

In order to corroborate the authenticity of the present painting, Ertz compares it to the following works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger:

(1) The Couple with the Hen and the Spindle (formerly Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris, signed, after 1616);
(2) The Couple with the Looking Glass (Historisches Museum, Bamberg, signed, after 1616);
(3) The Elegant Lady and the Piper (formerly Galerie Müllenmeister, Solingen, signed, after 1616)

Ertz concludes: ‘The stylistic features characteristic of this artist can also be recognised in the present tondo: the superior painterly perfection; the brushwork by which the artist traces and distinctly defines the details; and the mask-like faces of the couple that almost appear to be frozen and which are so typical of the artist. Unlike other couples depicted in such proverbial scenes, the man and the woman directly face each other – an idiosyncrasy in the art of Pieter Brueghel the Younger. […] The artist’s delicate brushwork, with white highlights applied in a final step – such as in the woman’s cuffs, ruff, and white bonnet and along the edges of the leaves – and the three-dimensional modelling of the two sharply outlined figures are all typical details that can also be observed in the present tondo.’