bruegelnow

Detective Hunt for a Lost Bruegel

Laurence Smith has conducted interesting research on a “lost” Bruegel work.  After viewing a black and white print in “Pierre Bruegel L’Ancien” by Charles de Tolnay (1935) , Smith began doing research on the van der Geest collection that contained the lost work and found a passage in the Phillippe and Francois Roberts-Jones “Pieter Bruegel” (1997) monograph stating:

“ … One of the richest collections in Antwerp in the mid-seventeenth century was that belonging to Peeter Stevens, which contained, besides works by Bruegel, paintings by Van Eyck, Quentin Metsys, Hans Holbein, Rubens, and Van Dyck. A wealthy cloth merchant and city benefactor who gave alms to the poor and was a patron of the arts, he appears in the center of Willem van Haecht’s painting of 1628, The Collection of Cornelis van der Geest. Peeter Stevens also annotated a copy of Van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck with the statement that he had seen twenty-three paintings by Bruegel, of which he possessed a dozen. The catalogue “Of the most renowned Rarities belonging to the late Mr. Peeter Stevens … Which will be sold the thirteenth day of the month of August and the following days of this year 1688, in the House of the deceased” listed: “By Bruegel the elder: A very famous Heath, where peasant men and Women go to market with a cart & a swine, & others”-a lost painting which appears on the left-hand wall in The Collection of Cornelis van der Geest, from whom Stevens had bought it (a drawing with watercolor, in the print room in Munich, also shows the same subject); …”

Was this really a lost Bruegel the Elder painting that now only survives in a watercolor of the collector van der Geest’s paintings?

Smith had the curator of the Rubenshuis Antwerp send him a close up photo of the section of the painting with the Bruegel. The Bruegel is high up on the left hand side and consequently at a steep angle.  Smith scanned the photo and attempted to straighten it and pull it into a rectangle. The artist of the watercolor was careful, Smith notes, “to include some detail and seems to have included enough to recognize the wagon and the tree and two or three of the people going to market. The colouring is dark…”

Smith then contacted the print room in Munich and was able to obtain a color print of the watercolor.  Smith found that the print had bits of color to distinguish different portions of the print, but it was not very helpful in discerning if the original was by Bruegel the Elder.  If the work wasn’t by Bruegel the Elder, could it have been by his son Jan?

Smith studied the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and noted that he used the market day subject several times and also included similar images of peasants walking along a path in his other painting.  Smith notes that the jug is shown in the watercolor without a hand supporting it, which differs from his other works.

On the question of whether Pieter Bruegel the Elder initiated the design that Jan copied or whether the original in the van de Geest collection should have been attributed to his son, Smith notes that it is impossible to know for certain, but concludes that it appears to be a Jan original rather than that of the elder Bruegel.  Based on my knowledge, I would concur with this conclusion as well.

Not only is Smith conducting this type of interesting research, but he also is running an upcoming Bruegel exhibition of a selection of engravings and oil studies.  The exhibit, at the Folk Museum at Helston in Cornwall, runs from May 13 – 30, 2013.  You can find Smith’s website at http://pieter-bruegel.co.uk

Brueghels In Australia – “Peasant” Wedding Dance” at the University of Melbourne

Currie & Allart’s “The Brueg(h)el Phenomenon” monograph set which I wrote about recently has been an invaluable resource in conducting research about a Pieter Brueghel III painting.

As background, in preparation for a recent trip to Australia, I was interested in determining if any works derived from Bruegel the Elder were to be found on the continent.  I learned of a “Peasant Wedding Dance,” attributed to Pieter Brueghel III, in the collection of the University of Melbourne.

According to the University of Melbourne’s catalog entry written by Dr. Jaynie Anderson … “In 1968 Professor Carl de Gruchy bought the work from the Pulitzer Gallery, London, which had bought it from a Dr. J. Henschen of Basel, Switzerland.”  Denise de Gruchy gave the work to the University in memory of her brother in 1994. The work is thought to be from the early seventeenth-century (c. 1610), and is 116 X 138.5 cm on canvas.  The Melbourne work is neither signed nor dated, and is currently displayed in the Karagheusian Room at University House (see below – “Peasant Wedding Dance” by Pieter Brueghel III, Melbourne Museum of Art Collection.)

I’ve been interested in learning more about Pieter Bruegel III’s paintings, since there is little known about the artist or his works.  I’ve uncovered no monographs about him, and scant bibliographic information is available.  It seems that Brueghel III was born in 1589 and is said to have first worked in, then later taken over, the workshop of his father, Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

Thanks to Currie & Allart’s detailed description of the painting, I learned that “Wedding Dance in the Open Air” (which has the same figural group as “Peasant Wedding Dance”) was a popular small-format (approx.. 40 cm X 60 cm on panel) work for Brueghel the Younger, with over 100 versions cataloged.  The Melbourne version does not appear in Klaus Ertz’s (2000) or Georges Marlier’s (1969) catalogue raisonne of Brueghel the Younger, nor in Currie & Allart.

Most of the Brueghel the Younger compositions of “Wedding Dance in the Open Air” follow the format seen below, which Currie & Allart refer to as a “left handed” orientation (see below: “Wedding Dance in the Open Air” by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Belgium)

However, an engraving after a presumably lost Bruegel the Elder painting as well as copies by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Bruegel’s contemporary Maerten van Cleve show a “right handed” orientation, which is the style of the Melbourne painting.  If the Melbourne work is by Brueghel III, then he would have vastly increased the size of the work, reversed the format of his father’s work by painting a “right handed” version, and switched from panel to canvas.  I have searched databases listing Brueghel II’s works, and found no other horizontal version of the painting by either Brueghel the Younger or Brueghel III that had a right hand orientation in the small format.  (There is one vertical format signed by Pieter the Younger.)

Viewing the painting in person, it is certainly “Bruegelian,” but lacks the subtlety and painterly expertise of the other Pieter the Younger versions.  The work is particularly unrefined in certain areas, such as in the middle right section of the work with the men near the tree.  Further, the color of the clothing of the dancers in the Brueghel III work differ substantially from the colors in the Brueghel the Younger versions.

It is hoped that an X-radiograph can be created for the Melbourne work, which would provide additional insight.  In addition, it would be helpful to view photographs of the reverse of the painting to learn if they would provide further clues regarding the creation of the painting.  Finally, since the Brueghel the Younger versions were painted with a cartoon, it would be interesting to examine the work to attempt to determine if a scaled up cartoon was used.

Thanks to Currie & Allart’s monograph, I was able to very quickly do further research  into this rare and interesting example of a Bruegel-related work in Australia.

(My gratitude to Dr. Jayne Anderson, Professor, Art History and Robyn Hovey, Collections Manager, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, for their generous assistance discussing and viewing this work.)

Brueghels in the Bunker

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The wine-red walls of the Brueghel exhibition hall at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art are now bare, like the crime scene of a daring art heist.

Tel Aviv’s leading art museum, spooked by rocket attacks on Israel’s cultural capital, moved nearly 200 works Friday into a rocket-proof safe the size of an auditorium — including some 100 works painted by relatives of Flemish Renaissance master Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

“Even if there’s a very small possibility (of damage), we don’t play around. We don’t take chances,” said Doron J. Lurie, the senior curator and chief conservator. “We’ve guarded them like our own kids.”

One other Israeli art museum followed suit, hauling some of its most prized artworks into fortified vaults deep underground to protect them from the current round of Israel-Palestinian fighting. For nearly a week, the Israeli military has waged air strikes against Gaza, while Palestinian militants have barraged Israel with rocket fire.

In the southern city of Ashdod, which has suffered more frequent rocket barrages because of its proximity to Gaza, the curator of the Ashdod Art Museum — Monart Center took down 15 works of leading contemporary Israeli artist Tsibi Geva. On Sunday, he stashed them in a vault four floors underground designed to withstand rocket fire and biological weapons.

“It’s chutzpah to take a chance on them,” said curator Yuval Biton, using the Yiddish word for “audacious.” It was the first time the Ashdod museum had hid its art in the vault since it opened in 2003.

Israel has seen its fair share of incoming fire over the past decade: Hezbollah launched rockets that rained down during the 2006 Lebanon war, and rockets from Gaza have repeatedly been fired into Israel’s south.

During fighting in Gaza four years ago, the art museum in the southern city of Beersheba moved works from unfortified storage to a reinforced vault in city hall, said Idit Amihai, the top government official in charge of museums.

But most of Israel’s leading museums in the heartland cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — far from traditional rocket range — have had little reason to fortify artworks in the past.

Even during the current fighting, not all museums have rushed to protect their treasures. The Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, which displays Near Eastern antiquities and other art, left its works in place. “We don’t get into a panic and take stuff from the glass showcases,” museum spokeswoman Miri Tsedaka said.

And, despite one instance of rockets aimed toward Jerusalem that landed south of the city, no extra security precautions have been taken at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the country’s central museum housing its most prized antiquities and cultural possessions. “It’s business as usual,” said director James Snyder.

Lenny Wolfe, a prominent Jerusalem antiquities dealer, said he hasn’t moved his valuable ancient objects from his bank’s safe deposit box. “I’m more concerned about my own safety and the safety of my own family than a few bits of pottery,” Wolfe said.

The only other time the Tel Aviv museum rushed to save its works was during the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraqi Scud missiles pounded the seaside metropolis. At that time, the museum whisked its entire collection of paintings and sculptures into its large vault.

The works that were moved into the safe on Friday include one of the Jewish world’s most iconic paintings — Polish artist Maurycy Gottlieb’s 1878 work, “Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur” — as well as some 100 works by sons and relatives of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and one precious painting by the master himself, the mid-16th century “The Resurrection of Christ.”

The Brueghel exhibit had already been crippled by Israel’s image as a dangerous place, said the curator, Lurie. He knew museums wouldn’t lend him many works by Brueghel himself, so he focused on persuading museums and collectors to lend him works by Brueghel’s descendants.

Then, a month before the “All His Sons: The Brueghel Dynasty” exhibition opened in August, two foreign museums backed down on their promise to loan two important paintings by the Flemish master’s sons because of heightened talk of a possible Iran-Israel war, Lurie said.

“‘Are you serious that you’re asking for this painting for summer 2012?'” Lurie recalled museum representatives telling him.

Now the exhibition’s works are behind a heavy, hulking metal door with an outsized combination lock. Wearing white gloves, Lurie turned a large silver wheel in the middle of the door and struggled to pull it open to show some of the stored paintings.

Despite concerns about the risks, top masterworks are frequently exhibited in Israeli museums on loan from world institutions and collectors. Displaying masterpieces is a trickier proposition in the West Bank: It took yearlong negotiations with Israel’s army and Dutch museum officials to get a $7 million Pablo Picasso masterpiece safely into a West Bank gallery in 2011.

Only a few rockets have whistled over the skies of Tel Aviv during the current conflict, and the city is considered safer than other Israeli towns along the Gaza border. So the Tel Aviv museum let southern Israelis visit the museum for free — and reduced admission for everyone else to account for the 200 or so missing spots on the museum walls. The Israel Museum and Eretz Israel Museum also offered free and discounted entry.

The works moved into the safes in Tel Aviv and Ashdod were mostly pieces on loan from private collectors.

“If they survived 800 years before they got here, we have to do the utmost, for the good of humanity, so they will survive at least another 500 years,” said Lurie.

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Original Article here: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-museums-hide-art-protect-rockets-213242859.html

Phenomenal New Book: The Brueg(h)el Phenomenon

The Brueg(h)el Phenomenon

By Christina Currie & Dominique Allart

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, 2012

This epic, three-volume monograph will likely be seen as a watershed in the study of Bruegel / Breughel works of art.  The Bruegel dynasty, begun by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and continued primarily by his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger and then grandson Pieter Brueghel II, has enchanted viewers for hundreds of years.  While there have been countless monographs reproducing the Elder Bruegel’s work (and to a much lesser degree, the works of Pieter Brueghel the Younger), technical-stylistic examination of the father and son’s work has not been undertaken until now.  This textual inquiry is accompanied by abundant illustrations bring to life the author’s hypothesis about the Brueg(h)el’s work and practices.

The first volume reviews the artistic and cultural milieu in the late sixteenth century in which Bruegel began his career.  A review of Bruegel’s work and posthumous fame follow, and while this ground has been well covered in the past, the author bring new insight due to the stylistic focus of their inquiry.  Brueghel the Younger’s work is reviewed, along with a review of Brueghel’s likely workshop practices, which continues in the other two volumes.  Brueghel the Younger’s long life allowed for a prestigious output of over 1,400 paintings, which necessitated a workshop of significant size.

The meaning of signatures and dates on the works of Bruegel the Elder and Breughel the Younger are discussed in fascinating detail.  Why were some works signed, while others were not?  Works which are of similar quality are sometimes signed – and sometimes not.   Were the signatures and dates on certain paintings placed there on a whim, or did the signatures and dates convey a greater meaning or a sign of quality other than the painterly indications which can be seen today.

The painting technique of Bruegel the Elder is also contained in the first volume.  The authors reveal for the first time that Bruegel the Elder was not consistent or uniform in his application of the painting’s underdrawing.  The authors conclude that while some underdrawings are “sketchy and searching,” other align more closely to neatly created outlines of the completed painting.

The second volume focused on the painting technique of Brueghel the Younger, and compares a number of paintings by the Elder and Younger.  For example, over 125 copies of Winter Landscape with Bird Trap exists, with attribution of some by Brueghel the Younger secured, and others not.  Intriguingly, some of the Brueghel the Younger autograph copies have a small hole directly in the center of the painting.  Tantalizingly, the authors hypothesized that this relates to the copying practice of Brueghel and his workshop.

The third volume focused on shedding light on Brueghel the Younger’s workshop practice.  The author surmise that copying was done by tracing a cartoon.  For the firs time, and in-depth discussion occurs around the number and nature of the cartoons used by Brueghel.  Because Brueghel painted in a workshop setting, some works reflect greater and lesser degrees of he master’s hand.  Determining which works had more or less of the workshop’s influence compared to the master’s direct participation is a central aspect of this volume of the work.

The most revelatory aspect of this volume, and perhaps of the entire work, is the proof, after much previous speculation that neither of the surviving copies of the Fall of Icarus are by the hand of Bruegel the Elder.  The authors prove that the copies are by unknown followers, most likely copied after a lost Bruegelian model.

Over the coming weeks I will focus on some of the key aspects of this monograph.  I hope that I will be able to convey some of the thrilling discoveries that authors bring to life in this fascinating study.

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Book ordering information:

Brepols Publishers, ISBN: 978-2-930054-14-8

Price; 160 Euros / 232 dollars

Europe: info@brepols.net – www.brepols.net, North America: orders@isdistribution.com –  www.isdistribution.com

“On the Trail of Bosch and Bruegel: Four Painting United Under Cross-Examination” edited by Erma Hermens

A review of:  “On the Trail of Bosch and Bruegel: Four Painting United Under Cross-Examination” edited by Erma Hermens, published this year by Archetype Publications Ltd.

This publication brings together a pan-European investigation of four different, yet very similar, paintings in an exhibition titled “Tracing Bosch and Bruegel: Four Paintings Magnified.”  The paintings, from the Kadriorg Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; The University of Glasgow and a Private collection, look similar yet are very different.  (You can compare the paintings yourself using the excellent exhibit website: http://www.bosch-bruegel.com/paintings_light.php?painting=compare)  This fascinating monograph investigates the paintings from a variety of perspectives including working to answer such questions as which of the four paintings was the original.

Starting with the province of the paintings, chapter 1 reviews the relatively short history of the four works.  All are not traceable before than the 20^th century.  Three of the paintings are similar in size and format, with the Glasgow panel the exception with its portrait format.  Virtually unknown before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Tallinn work is the least studied of the works.

Chapter 2 traces the roots of the composition, pointing out that without Max Friedlander’s attribution of the Copenhagen work in 1931 to Bruegel, this series would not be historically attached to him.  Where the Copenhagen work (and to some extent the Tallinn version) are very Bruegelesque, the copy in Private hands and the Glasgow version are much more Bosch-like.   The author persuasively argues that there is little Bruegel influence on the composition, with it being much indebted to Bosch motifs.

This chapter is a wonderful encapsulation of the mystery of these four paintings.  While the Private painting is likely the oldest, dating from the 1530’s, of the three large canvases, it is thought to be the least like the original model.  The Copenhagen version, painted some 30 – 40 years later, is probably closer to the original composition.  However, the Copenhagen version is not faithful to what was likely the original’s background, with the painting in Tallinn adhering more closely to the background of the original.

Chapter 3 reviews the paintings’ materials and techniques of the studios where the paintings were executed.  This chapter is especially engrossing for those coming to the subject for the first time, and features clear writing and fascinating illustrations, including presenting the method for separating a tree in order to make the planks for the paintings.  The Private painting has a mark from the lumberjacks who cut down the tree, a rare example of these being visible on the reverse of a completed paintings.

A discussion of the underdrawings and the ground used to prepare the panels for paint is also discussed in this chapter.  Regarding the layers of paint, the authors conclude that three of the paintings had similar build up of layers of paint, with the Private painting being the exception due to its simple preparation.  Fingerprints were also found in this version and not found on the others.

Dating of the trees used to create the panels of the four paintings is a technique undertaken to assist with determining when the paintings may have been created.  This process, called dendrocronology, was used in three of the four works.  (Because the Glasgow’s restoration in 1987 introduced balsawood into the frame, it was not possible to attempt to date this work.)  The authors note that the Copenhagen version’s planks were drawn from the same tree, which does not occur in the other two paintings.  The authors conclude that the Private painting was made 30 years before the Copenhagen and Tallinn versions, within the lifetime of Bruegel but after the death of Bosch.

Chapter 5 examines the underdrawing of the paintings to determine the “handwriting” of the art works.  The authors use infrared (IR) imaging techniques, including infrared reflectology to examine the underdrawings.  Material used for underdrawings typically consisted of black oil chalk, which provided an outline for the painter(s) to then follow as they applied the layers of paint.  It was common in workshops of the 16^th century to use a so called “cartoon” or drawing covered in chalk on the reverse side of the image, placed on top of a painting and then traced.  However, only the Private and Glasgow version have the characteristic “trembling” of the hand that would indicate the use of a cartoon.  The authors conclude that each of the four paintings’ underdrawings as well as final paint layers were all created by different hands, and none of the four are the master model.  The authors even question whether a single master model was used, believing it possible that several different version of the painting were circulating among the painters studios over the 30+ years that the works were created.  The authors conclude that none of the works were created in the same studio or with the same cartoon.  However, they believe that a model was on hand to create the works, given the nearly identical full foreground composition.

The 6^th chapter discusses copying for the art market of the 16^th century, and reviews the Antwerp art market of the time, which was said to employ twice as many artists as bread makers.  Antwerp became a hub for production of copies, which accounted for fully half of the painted art output of the city during this time.  There is not consensus among the authors regarding whether the works are a copy after a lost original, or a “phantom copy” (an invention made to look like the work of a popular artist).  Because the coloring differs so widely across the four versions, the authors surmise that a drawing or cartoon was used.  The author of this chapter concludes that the prototype was closest to the Private version, while as we saw earlier in chapter 2, the author surmised that various aspects of the Copenhagen panel was closest to the original.

In chapter 7 the author argues the case for the paintings following a lost Bosch original, rather than a Bosch 16^th century revivalist.  The author bases this hypothesis on the iconography of the composition, which is compatible with Bosch’s “system of norms and values.”  Bosch used biblical imagery from the past to comment on the Low Countries in the early 16^th Century.  Like in biblical times, the typically late medieval Dutch town shown in the painting is comprised of the poor, peasants and beggars.  Bosch’s lost original compels viewers to “take to heart the word of Christ” to be saved.

This monograph takes the reader on a fascinating detective hunt for the original and earliest version of the painting.  For those interested in an investigation of this type within an art-historical context, this will be the perfect summertime read!

Summer Auction Highlights

The summer auction season is upon us, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s offering stellar works by Brueghel the Younger.

Massacre of the Innocents

One of most interesting works at auction is the version of “Massacre of the Innocents” at Christie’s.  It is interesting for the mystery related to the signature.  From the Lot Details:

“The form of the signature on the major versions is considered to be of significance in placing them within the chronologies of Pieter the Elder’s and Pieter the Younger’s oeuvres. The Royal Collection picture is signed ‘BRVEGEL’, which is now accepted as the Elder’s signature; the Vienna version is signed ‘BRVEG’ at the extreme right edge, although the letters ‘EL’ or ‘HEL’ may have been inadvertently trimmed off; a version in Bucharest is signed ‘P. BRVEGEL’. At the time of its sale in Paris in 1979, the present version appears to have born a fragmentary date in addition to the signature, ‘.BRVEGEL. 15..’ (see Campbell, op. cit., p. 15). We are grateful to Christina Currie of KIK/IRPA for noting that the present version is unusual in that it is signed with the signature form of Bruegel the Elder after 1559, ‘.BRVEGEL.’ without an ‘H’ and without the initial ‘P’. No other versions of the Massacre of the Innocents are securely known to be signed in this way; the implications of this for its primacy in the sequence of versions painted by Brueghel the younger remains to be established.”

What happened to the date on the painting?  Having the date on the work in 1979 but not present now is mysterious.  Was the painting subject to a botched cleaning?  Or, did a cleaning reveal that the date was likely false, and was it removed?  Hopefully this mystery will be solved soon.  Further, it will be very interesting to learn where this version sits in the multiple versions painted by Brueghel.

“Nord on Art” has a great write up of the upcoming Brueghel works at auction:

http://nordonart.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/brueghel-the-warhol-of-the-old-master-market/

Newly discovered landscape drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder on display

Larry Silver’s “Pieter Bruegel”: New Insights On The Old Master

A review of “Pieter Bruegel” by Larry Silver, Abbeville Press, 2011

The images created by Bruegel come thrillingly to life in this Abbeville Press monograph.  This handsome volume, written by Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, puts forward new insights into Bruegel and the time in which he lived.   Silver set out to document Bruegel’s output in prints, drawings and paintings by focusing on patterns and areas of interest common to these diverse media.  Silver places Bruegel in the social and historical context of his time, as a commentator of the religious and political unrest occurring in the Netherlands during his short lifetime.  Silver also includes information not typically found in other Bruegel monographs, documenting the rise of Bruegel scholarship at the end of the nineteenth century, when the new country of Belgium began to look for a native artist to celebrate.

Silver’s first chapter focuses on “Chris Carrying the Cross,” recently made into the fascinating film by Lech Majewski and discussed in a previous blog entry.  This chapter is an excellent companion piece to the film, setting Bruegel’s work in the context of Rogier van der Weyden, who lived before Bruegel, as well as Bruegel’s contemporaries such as Joachim Beuckelaer.  For Silver, “Christ Carrying the Cross” showcases Bruegel’s range of expression found in his earlier prints, as well as pointing the way to his groundbreaking final paintings, which break with the traditional staging of peasant and religious scenes.

Other chapters cover Bruegel’s life in Antwerp, his prominent patron Nicolaes Jonghelinck and his time with print maker (and future father-in-law) Hieronymus Cock.  In a chapter on Bruegel as the “second Bosch,” Silver describes a fascinating transition between the “Bosch” brand, which Bruegel used early in his career, to the “Bruegel” brand, which was not only used by Bruegel but continued by his son and followers for generations.

Silver’s chapters on religion and tradition include an analysis of Bruegel’s ongoing interest in soldiers and weapons, placing Bruegel’s art in the broader context of earlier German images of important battles, such as the Battle of Pavia, which clearly had a significant influence on the artist.

It is inevitable that a Bruegel monograph would include a section on peasant labor and leisure, but Silver manages to put an interesting new spin on this oft covered subject.  Building on Alison Stewart’s recent work, Silver shows Bruegel continuing and expanding the tradition of scenes found in German woodcuts.  The fascinating scholarly debate between whether Bruegel’s treatment of peasants was sympathetic or moralistically critical is covered well by Silver.

One of the aspects of the monograph that I enjoyed the most was Silver’s careful treatment of lost works by Bruegel that have come down to us through copies by his sons.  Silver rightly points out that these lost works deserve robust, careful consideration in the context of original Bruegel’s that survive and should not be discounted as is typical in other Bruegel monographs.  Paintings such as “Wedding Procession” and “Visit to a Farmhouse” are two examples where only copies survive, but nevertheless are important components of the Bruegel oeuvre.

The final chapter, which details Bruegel’s legacy, includes an analysis of works by his sons, as well as those who copied or even forged Bruegel’s works.  Silver sees this as Bruegel coming to assume a similar status as Bosch, where “Bruegelian” images and themes were adapted and repeated to great commercial success.  Silver concludes the monograph by highlighting how no single scholarly consensus has emerged for Bruegel.  Rather, he is viewed through the prism of the agendas of scholars who study him.

This monograph is highly recommended.

Exhibition: Bosch & Bruegel Four Paintings Magnified

Bosch Bruegel Exhibit

Years ago, while visiting the National Gallery of Denmark, I was stopped in my tracks as I came across a painting identified as a Bruegel the Elder work.  I wasn’t floored so much for the painting’s beauty, but my mouth hung open because I had never seen it or heard of it before.  The painting, “Christ Driving the Money-Lenders From the Temple,” was listed in none of my many Bruegel monographs.  How could this be? I wondered.  How can a museum hang a work and call it “Bruegel” when everyone else in the world doesn’t agree that it is a Bruegel?

Currently a fascinating exhibit covering the painting is underway.  Tracing Bosch and Bruegel: Four Paintings Magnified investigates four similar paintings that are done in the Bosch style, which was also emulated by Bruegel in his earlier paintings.  The exhibit seeks to answer the questions of who painted the works and when were they painted.  Further, how did these four very different paintings of essentially the same scene come to hang in the three galleries and one private collection?

While my specific question regarding the labeling of the Copenhagen painting isn’t answered in the exhibit, it does provide countless other fascinating details.  You can learn more about the exhibit at the excellent website: http://www.bosch-bruegel.com.  The creators of the website should be applauded at their exceptional work.  While I am not likely to see the exhibit in any of the locations to which it travels, I feel as if I have experienced it due to the wealth of information provided on the web.  In addition, at least two conferences and a monograph are planned around the exhibitions, with further interesting information certainly to be revealed.

I’ve really enjoyed reading the Twitter feed as the exhibit came together. Hannah Tempest did an excellent job tweeting the process of cleaning and restoration, and providing highly interesting images.

The questions remains – after the exhibit and the Copenhagen painting travels back to the National Gallery – will it still be labeled as “Bruegel?”

I’m interested to hear from folks who have seen the exhibit first hand.  What was it like?

Christ Driving the Money-Lenders From the Temple

Brueghel Auction Update – Fall 2011

There was big news in the Bruegel-verse, with the fall 2011 auction season generating a new record for a price paid for a Brueghel the Younger painting.  Brueghel expert Klaus Ertz called the version of “The Battle Between Carnival and Lent” which was sold “of masterly quality”, which certainly helped the work achieve a the record price of £6,873,250.

Of this sale, the New York Times’ Souren Melikian said:

“In the days of abundance, Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s vast allegory “The Battle Between Carnival and Lent” would not have aroused wild enthusiasm. No fewer than five versions of the subject have been recorded, of which three are from the painter’s own hand. These are not even original but are interpretations of Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s composition. On Dec. 7, 2006, “The Battle Between Carnival and Lent” cost £3.26 million at Christie’s. On Tuesday it rose to £6.87 million. The easy, large Brueghelian image appeals to a new generation of bidders loath to spend much time parsing the subtleties of great masters, whether in compositional inventiveness or the brilliance of brushwork.”

(NYT, 12/9/2011)