(Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp)
Forest landscape with hunters
oil on panel, 41.5 x 58 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 20th April 2004, lot 249 (as ‘Follower of Jan Brueghel I’);
with Derek Johns Gallery, London (2004);
with Galerie Florence de Voldère, Paris (2005);
Private European collection

Literature:
K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Die Gemälde, vol. I, Lingen, 2008, p. 205, no. 82

Ertz writes about the present painting, which he dates to around 1595: ‘Due to distinct similarities in the rendering of the foliage I also consider the latter composition, which features Pieter I’s motif of a huntsman climbing over a tree trunk, an autograph variant from Jan’s early period, painted in Italy around 1595. This relatively large wooden panel lends itself to the depiction of this woodland composition, which has been retained in its original form in many variants, as has the copper plate (cat. no. 81), which repeats the scene in a miniature-like style’.

In the context of a further variant of this composition discussed earlier (cat. no. 79), Ertz comments upon the figure style: ‘The figural staffage that I examined in more detail under cat. no. 77 also recurs in the present composition. Given the figure type of the hunter running into the picture, one would be inclined to regard it as a derivative of the work of the father, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Even if the exact model has not come down to us, one might consider the father a source of inspiration that was probably transmitted via Jan’s elder brother, Pieter the Younger. For it is surprising that the same figures can be found in the only forest landscape that can plausibly be attributed to the latter’.