(Antwerp 1564–1635) and (Antwerp 1575–1632)
Elijah in the Desert,
oil on canvas, 116.5 x 77.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
art market, England, 2013;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

According to Klaus Ertz the landscape of the present work was painted by Joos de Momper II while the figural staffage was executed by Hendrick van Balen, towards the end of the 1620s. The very picturesque view of the rocks, the streaky brushstrokes in the rock faces, the background and the sky indicate that the landscape was painted late in de Momper’s artistic development.

The figures of this Old Testament scene, in which an angel of the Lord brings water and bread to the prophet Elijah for his journey to Mount Horeb, also ‘fit’ into this (1 Kings 19:6-8). Momper, who was almost exclusively a pure landscape painter, collaborated with other artists for the staffage in his compositions. These include such figure painters as Jan Breughel I, and after his death, Jan Brueghel II, or, as is the case here, Hendrick van Balen, whose style in depicting figures reminds one of Peter Paul Rubens in his later creative period.

Towards the end of his career, Momper repeatedly reverted to compositional ideas from earlier times. In contrast to these rocky landscapes, the ones he produced later on were much more picturesque. A single piece of rock, taken out of context, is no longer recognisable as such - has become part of the composition and is inextricably linked to it.