(Antwerp 1601-1678) A village scene with houses and a pond in the foreground, laundresses and a drawing well, pen and brown ink, brush and black ink, grey and brown wash, on laid paper, 30 x 39,5 cm, browned, damaged (tears), mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Stamp Collection Th. Hudson (Lugt 2432) on the recto; Prinz N. Esterhazy (Lugt 1965); private collection, France.

Literature:
Klaus Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jüngere (1564-1635). Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1986, pp. 392-396, Cat. 380, 381.

The present drawing is presumably a preliminary study for the painting „Village scene with drawing well“ (oil on canvas, 46 x 75 cm, Brusselles, Coll. Nieuwenhuys 1955, comp. Ertz 1986, Cat. 380), which was executed in collaboration with Josse de Momper between 1615-1626. Like in other instances the artists painted in collaboration between 1615 and 1626: Momper was responsible for the landscapes and Bruegel for the figure staffage. There is evidence for the cooperation of the two artists between 1626 and 1628 due to a diary. However, one can assume that Jan Brueghel the Younger added figures to several of Momper’s landscapes in the workshop of his father and even before he went to Italy in 1622. (Comp. Ertz 1986, p. 392). The composition of the village scene is based on comparable ideas of Brueghels father Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Compositions like this have been handed over by way of engravings such as through a print by Hieronymus Cock of 1559. Ertz also refers to a second more obvious source by pointing out a drawing by Jan Brueghels the Elder in a Russian museum, which shows similar general features in the composition (comp. Ertz 1986, p. 395, Ill. 501, 502).