BruegelNow
Bruegel The Elder
The curious case of a Brueghel the Younger lot estimate
A very nice version of “Wedding Dance in the Open Air” by Pieter Brueghel the Younger is coming up for auction shortly at Christies Paris on November 21, 2024 in the auction “Maîtres Anciens : Peintures – Dessins – Sculptures” (Live auction 23018). (This work is called “The Wedding Dance” in this auction.)
The consensus is that this painting is most likely a copy of a lost work by Brueghel’s father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. (It is also possible that the composition could be a combination of elements from various wedding dance scenes that his father painted.)
We can’t help but wonder why the estimate is so far removed from the price realized when the lot was last sold 13 years ago. When sold by Sotheby’s New York on June 9, 2011, the price realized was $512,500 on an estimate of $300,000 – $500,000.
The current estimate for the Christie’s sale is €120,000 – €180,000. Why the lot now carries an estimate 25% – 35% of the price realized in 2011 is puzzling.
While we are not an expert at setting auction estimates, such a low estimate is perplexing. In our experience, wide swings in valuation would typically occur under a few circumstances:
- Change in authorship: While the work was sold in 2011 as “Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Studio,” perhaps it was purchased with the belief that the attribution could be changed to a fully autograph work of Brueghel the Younger. However, since the price realized was not far from the estimate, this appears unlikely.
- Market for the artist’s work: Some artist’s works fluctuate in price due to the artist becoming more (or less) popular. Based on other recent Pieter Brueghel the Younger works at auction over the last few years, interest in the artist continues to be strong, and high prices achieved. It is unlikely that change of interest in Brueghel the Younger’s work resulted in a lower estimate.
- Lack of due diligence / research: As mentioned above, traditionally this work is called “Wedding Dance in the Open Air.” The current work is listed as “La Danse de Noces” (“The Wedding Dance”). Perhaps this is a careless error by Christie’s, who may not have done their research in order to properly name the work. Similarly, Christie’s may not have conducted due diligence to determine how much the work sold for when it was last at auction.
We will be closely watching the outcome of the sale to understand if the €120,000 – €180,000 is an accurate estimate, or if the hammer price will soar to the heights achieved when it was last auctioned.
Book Review: Bruegel & l’Italia / Bruegel and Italy: Proceedings of the International Conference Held in the Academica Belgica in Rome, 26-28 September 2019 (Peeters, 2023)
A fascinating new monograph assesses Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s encounter with Italian art and culture. Bruegel, like many Netherlandish artists of his era, traveled to Italy early in his career. His Italy travels are mentioned in most biographies, usually in a cursory fashion. This monograph, comprised of 11 chapters written by leading scholars in the field, takes an in-depth look into this important aspect of Bruegel’s career. It is a compelling addition to Bruegel scholarship, going beyond the superficial recounting of his travels through the region. The monograph is comprised of three sections. Part 1 reviews Italian art in the Low Countries before and during Bruegel’s time. Part II details Bruegel’s journey and his time in Italy. Part III reviews Bruegel’s dialog with Italy in his later life and work.
Bruegel’s trip to Italy has not been closely studied up to this point because no compositions after modern Italian artworks by his hand are known, and the impact of his travels is not immediately evident in his work. The monograph takes issue with this line of thought. The book makes the case that Bruegel didn’t need to travel to Italy to see Italian masters like Raphael and Michelangelo, since prints of these works were already circulating in the Low Countries and were referred by local masters. Instead, many interesting theories of Bruegel’s reasons for travel are put forward. Most interesting is that Bruegel was already employed by print maker Hieronymus Cock and his printing company, Aux Quatre Vents (Sign of the Four Winds), and embarked on the trip in order to make preparatory drawings for engravings which would be executed upon his return to Antwerp. Other authors make the case that Bruegel also undertook the journey to market his talent abroad in preparation for later print sales and painting commissions. Bruegel’s promotion of his work seems to have been particularly effective with the Farnese family, primarily Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and his circle, including his nephew and namesake.
The book makes the case that Bruegel did not go to Italy to simply become familiar with ancient and modern Italian art, but instead to incorporate Italian aspects into his works. The monograph looks to reformulate Bruegel’s relation with the country as a reciprocal exchange, meaning, for example, that Bruegel was influenced by Italian art, and then Bruegel’s drawings and paintings went on to influence later Italian artists. The authors make the case that a profound impact of his time in Italy was manifested in his late panel paintings, with their large figures and energetic movements. Brueghel was likely influenced by the Italian tapestries that he viewed, with their lively, vibrant figures impacting Bruegel’s sequencing of figures in motion. An example of this possible influence is below.
The volume posits that Bruegel not only visited Rome, but he also visited Naples as well as Reggio Calabria. It is thought that he had extensive contact with artists in the region, such as the Croatian miniaturist Giulio Clovio in Lyon, France, when Bruegel was on his way to Italy.
Italy’s influence on Bruegel’s went beyond pictorial composition, and is likely to have continued with the type of material on which he painted. Two of Bruegel’s paintings, Misanthrope (1568) and Parable of the Blind (1568) now in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, are on glue-tempera canvases, also called Tuchlein. These could have been purposely painted in this format for export to Italy since these paintings could be rolled for long distance transport.
Artistic impact is thought to have occurred with Bruegel’s The Tower of Babel, now in Vienna, where its inspiration could have occurred from Bruegel’s viewing ancient Italian buildings like the Colosseum and allusions to Romanesque architecture. However, Bruegel translates the biblical story into his time, by transporting Babel to an Antwerp-like Netherlandish city of Bruegel’s era.
While I was unable to read the chapters written in Italian, those written in English are of uniformly high quality. The chapter on Bruegel’s Bay of Naples painting, written by Tanja Michalsky, is of interest, since that work has frequently been the subject of authorship debate over the past few decades. The chapter detailing Bruegel’s Seasons paintings by Tine Luk Meganck, posits that the series of paintings was created specifically to hang on the four walls of the villa of Nicholes Jonghelink. This early example of a room installation was done to promote meal-time discussion, since it was installed in the villa’s dining room. Italian villas of the same era had a similar layout and decorations.
The monograph is highly recommended. It provides a deep dive into a previously little-known aspect of Bruegel the Elder’s life and brings forward a wealth of new information that will impact Bruegel scholarship for years to come.
Brueghel: The Family Reunion
An art museum in ‘s Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, the Het Noordbrabants Museum, is throwing a “family reunion” for the Bruegels / Brueghels. The exhibition, Brueghel: The Family Reunion, covers nearly 200 years of painting from this famous family. The exhibition covers five generations of the Bruegel family, including his sons, grandchildren and mother-in-law. All were influential painters, creating a dynasty throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The family was responsible for the “Bruegel craze” that occurred around 1600, after the most famous member of the family, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, had died. The exhibit is captured in a compelling monograph with wonderful essays published by WBOOKS (www.wbooks.com).
The head of the dynasty, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, is represented in the exhibition by several paintings which seldom leave their home museum. Or, in the case of “The Drunkard Pushed into the Pigsty,” from 1557, are on a rare loan from a private collection.
The role of the women in the Bruegel family is a focus of the monograph. After Pieter Bruegel the Elder died, Pieter the Younger and Jan the Elder, who were very young children, were taught to paint by Bruegel’s mother in law, Mayken Verhulst. Mayken was an artist in her own right, who took over the daily business operations of the workshop of her husband, Pieter Coecke Van Aelst’s, after he died. She not only transferred her artistic knowledge, with documentary evidence showing that she instructed Jan Brueghel the Elder in watercolor painting, but also business knowledge related to how to run a large-scale workshop, which both Pieter the younger and Jan the Elder, did later in life.
The Brueghel family’s interest in the outside world, including elemental and seasonal cycles , depicting plants, animals and weather patterns, can be found in select paintings of the family members. Jan Brueghel the Elder specialized early on in landscapes and the elements. The monograph depicts a series of one of the earliest series, which was so popular it was copied with variations into the 17th century, by not only Jan, but by his son Jan Brueghel the Younger. David Teniers the Younger, the son-in-law of Jan Brueghel the Elder, turned his attention to weather phenomena, and used masterful brushstrokes to evoke emotion.
Paintings of collectors’ cabinets began with Jan Brueghel the Elder and continued for generations, including a fine example by Jan van Kessel included in the monograph. Nearly one-quarter of his surviving oeuvre are depictions of insects. Many works have van Kessel painting the letters of his name in the form of caterpillars and snakes, tying art and nature together. Painters such as Jan Brueghel and Jan van Kessel studied nature and objects with an eye for detail, creating depictions so accurate that they could “seduce and deceive the eye of the viewer.”
The final chapter of the monograph focuses on women and artistic knowledge in the family, with a focus on Clara Eugenia, eighth child of Jan Brueghel I and Catharina van Marienbergh. Clara Eugenia chose to live her life in a semi-monastic residential community for women. Called Beguines, these communities offered women a supportive alternative to marriage and motherhood. Clara Eugenia took the post of church mistress and served as godmother not only for her brother Jan II’s daughter, but also for Clara Teniers, daughter of her sister Anna and David Teniers II. A wonderful portrait of Clara Eugenia is presented in the exhibit and monograph.
The bright, bright vibrant reproductions of the paintings in the monograph make this an essential work for those interested in the Bruegel family. While viewing the works in person should be a priority for those in the region, for others who are not able to attend (or for those that want a wonderful memento), this monograph is a wonderful substitute.
Klaus Ertz, 1945 – 2023
Klaus Ertz, who created catalog raisonnés of members of the Brueghel family and other painters of that era, has died. His death was announced on website of his self publishing company, http://www.luca-verlag.de/publisher. Ertz, and his wife, Christa Nitze-ErtzCristina, spent decades creating catalog raisonnes of members of the Brueghel family, including Jan Brueghel the Elder (1979), Jan Brueghel the Younger (1984) and Pieter Brueghel the Younger (2000, 2 volumes).
The books were carefully created, virtual works of arts themselves. I have always been particulalry impressed by the 2 volumes related to Pieter Brueghel the Younder. The approximately 1,400 works presented over hundreds of pages overflowed with many color images of Bruehgel’s works. For example, Ertz cataloged (with many images) some 127 versions of “Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters and Bird Trap.”
The monographs saught to differentiate autograph works created by Bruehgel the Younger from works primarily by the hands of the many assistents employed in his workshop. Ertz also noted works that were signed and dated.
His greatest impact on the art market was his authentication of works from the Bruehgel family for auction houses like Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Koller and others. The auction houses to bring some level of order to the, if not quite chaos, certainly unclear authorship, of Brueghel’s works. According to a fascinating study (“The Implicit Value of Arts Experts: The Case of Klaus Ertz and Pieter Brueghel the Younger,” Anne-Sophie Radermecker, Victor A. Ginsburgh and Denni Tommasi, January 2017, SSRN Electronic Journal), an Ertz authentication of a work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger increased the work’s value by 60%. While the authentication documents that Ertz created for auction houses were typically short in length, their impact added hundred of thousands of dollars to the sale price of Brueghel-related works. Ertz and the auction houses seemed to have a symbiotic, and very mutually beneficial, relationship.
How Ertz’s death will impact the auction houses, as they will inevitably continue to sell works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, is an open question. In the brief time since Ertz’s death, only one auction with a Pieter Brueghel the Younger work has been announced (as far as we can ascertain). The work, “The Adoration of the Magi,” was authenticated by Ertz in 2009. Because Ertz authenticated such a large number of paintings during his lifetime, if the owners / auction houses can produce Ertz’s previously created authentication letters, many works will be continue to be sold as verified by Ertz.
Since Ertz began producing his volumes some 40 years ago, many changes have occurred with connoisseurship, catalog raisonnés and their definition and creation. Unsurprisingly, cataloging artist’s works have moved online. For example, a wonderful Jan Brueghel the Elder compendium has been created and overseen by Elizabeth Alice Honig, Professor, University of Maryland, and her team at http://janbrueghel.net/.
As recounted in the Radermecker, Ginsburgh and Tommasi article, expertise in the form of purely visual connoisseurship that Ertz provided has been supplanted by evidence-based technical analysis of the kind applied to the Bruegel family in the groundbreaking volume “The Brueg(H)el Phenomenon: Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger” by Christina Currie and Dominique Allart. This is because technical analysis provides stronger grounds for securing authorship than a simple visual review of a painting. However, detailed technical analysis is much more time consuming and expensive, making the proposition of technical analysis becoming commonplace at auction houses unlikely in the short term. How art market authentication of the Brueghel family’s works moves forward in the wake Ertz’s death has yet to be seen.
Book Review: “Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the Younger as Moralist and Entrepreneur”
“Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the Younger as Moralist and Entrepreneur” – Edited by Robert Wenley, with Essays by Jamie L. Edwards, Ruth Bubb, and Christina Currie. Published to accompany the exhibition at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham in association with Paul Holberton Publishing.
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This volume makes an excellent case regarding why Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s works became popular throughout Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. While Bruegel the Elder’s painted works were primarily in the private collections of the Pope and noble families, his eldest son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was producing copies of his father’s compositions for decades. These works were largely bought by middle and upper-class European families, cementing Bruegel/Brueghel’s legacy and furthering the family’s “brand.”
It is rare for a museum exhibition to conduct a deep-dive into a single Brueghel the Younger work, which makes this show (and monograph) especially welcome. The focus is on four works of the same subject, “Two Peasants binding Firewood.” Thought to possibly be a model of a lost painting by Bruegel the Elder, Pieter the Younger painted multiple copies of this work, with four included in this exhibit (three of which are thought to come from Brueghel the Younger and his workshop).
Mysteries surround “Two Peasants binding Firewood.” Why did this subject matter resonate with Europeans at the time? How many versions of the painting were created? How were the copies made? The essays in the monograph seek to answer these questions in fascinating detail.
The book begins with a chapter detailing the life of Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Born in 1564, his famous father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, died when Pieter the Younger was a young child. Pieter the Younger moved to Antwerp and set up his own independent studio, specializing in reproductions of famous works by his father, as well as original compositions in the Elder Bruegel’s style. Brueghel the Younger was assisted by a rotating group of one or two formal apprentices that entered his workshop every few years. Brueghel the Younger and his assistants produced paintings at high volume throughout his career, with Pieter living a long life, dying in 1637/1638.
The next chapter is Jamie L. Edward’s engaging essay detailing the history of peasants in Bruegel the Elder and Brueghel the Younger’s works. Interestingly, the meaning of the painting at the center of the exhibit, “Two Peasants binding Firewood,” cannot be ascertained with certainty, but can be surmised based on the appearance of similar peasants in other Bruegel works. Of the two peasants prominent in the painting, the tall thin peasant, wearing a bandage around his head, has been identified as a reference to the proverb ‘he has a toothache at someone,’ meaning someone that deceives or is a malingerer. The second peasant, stout and dressed in red pants, represents a stock ‘type’ which can frequently be found in peasant wedding paintings of the time. One likely reading of the painting is that it depicts two peasants who have been caught in the act of stealing firewood.
The chapter by Christina Currie and Ruth Bubb focuses on an analysis of the two other extant rectangular versions of “Two Peasants binding Firewood,” (one from a Belgium private collection and the other at the National Gallery, Prague), comparing them to the version at the Barber Institute. A surprising finding of the dendrochronological analysis of the painting at the Barber Institute found that the tree used to fashion the board used in the painting was cut down between ~1449 and 1481. The authors identify the creator of the panel through a maker’s mark on the reverse of the painting. The panel maker was active from 1589 – c.1621, meaning that the panel was likely painted during this time frame. Interestingly, this means that the tree was stored for well over 100 years before being used by the panel-maker to create the board used by Brueghel the Younger.
Brueghel typically made his works by transferring images via a cartoon to the prepared panel through pouncing, which involved rubbing a small porous bag containing black pigment over holes pricked in an outline of the painting (called a cartoon) onto the prepared blank surface of the panel. The dots that remained were connected via black graphite pencil, and the pigment (dots) wiped away. The paint layer was then placed on top of the underdrawing.
The authors review each of the three rectangular versions, identifying two as autograph versions by Pieter the Younger and his studio. The authors make a compelling case for the version of the painting now in Prague being created outside of Pieter the Younger’s studio. This is due to several reasons, including the lack of underdrawing. The Prague version is also more thickly painted and has relatively crude color-blending in the faces. Some colors in the painting are also different, with light blue rather than pink used for the color of the jacket of the plump peasant.
The final section of the monograph contains the catalog of works in the exhibition. The detailed description and wonderfully-produced images allow the reader to analyze them individually as well as to compare and contrast them. For example, one version of the painting seems to show the thin peasant with his mouth open, showing his few remaining teeth.
Particularly interesting is the smaller, round version of the painting, said to have been painted by Brueghel the Younger later in his career, using free hand, and not a cartoon. This version depicts the two peasants with much smaller heads, in a loose, free-hand manner.
The description of the paintings and their differences is fascinating, with the reader coming away with a good understanding of how the paintings were created and who likely painted them. Readers of the monograph will learn the fascinating history of the Bruegel/Brueghel family along with a compelling explanation regarding how Brueghel the Younger continued and enhanced his family’s reputation in the first part of the 17th century.
Bruegel’s Children’s Games – A Curious (Old) Copy Has Just Surfaced
Recently we’ve been given the opportunity to examine first hand a very interesting copy of Bruegel’s Children’s Games. The painting is large – 28″ X 39″, seemingly painted on a single panel (or two panels), potentially painted on larch (birch).
Below is the original version from 1560
Below is the copy from ?
What makes this copy so interesting is how it diverges from Bruegel’s original. There are many Children’s games that are missing from the copy, as seen in the illustrations below.
Figures that appear in both versions are in yellow. Those not highlighted are missing from the curious copy:
This blog will document the research done on this painting to ascertain when it was painted, and potentially who painted it.
We love a detective hunt!
Bruegel’s Mirror – Exhibition
A wonderful new exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum from September 20 to November 8 2014 explores Bruegel the Elder via art created by Laurence Smith.
From the introduction:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569) was a Flemish artist who illustrated
people’s everyday lives and the worlds they inhabited. His work is often seen
as being one of the earliest forms of social satire in art history.
In the drawing Nobody and Somebody (1558) the character of Nobody
is shown staring at himself in a mirror, below Bruegel has written the line
“Nobody looks at himself”. Bruegel loved to turn proverbs into pictures and in
doing so held his own mirror up to what he saw as the foolishness of society.
Bruegel was predominantly known for his large, colourful oil paintings of, what
were known as, ‘peasant scenes’. These were commissioned by wealthy
patrons and rarely seen in public. However, many of his drawings were made
into engravings allowing them to be reproduced and seen by a far wider
audience.
Laurence Smith has made a study of Bruegel’s little known graphic works and
turned some of these drawings and engravings into oil paintings whilst trying
to mirror the colour and energy of Bruegel’s paintings. Enlarged and vividly
coloured Bruegel’s highly detailed graphic images can now be seen like never
before.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder wanted to hold up a theatrical mirror in order for us to
see our own selves, with all our virtues and vices, reflected back at us.
Two Outstanding Bruegel-Related Paris Galleries: Galerie D’Art Saint-Honoré and De Jonckheere Gallery
Paris is home to the only two galleries that specialize in work by the family of Bruegel. For those interested in Brueghel, these galleries are “can’t miss” opportunities. Fortunately, during a visit to Paris earlier this year, I was able to tour both galleries.
Galerie D’Art Saint-Honoré
The Galerie has been in existence since 1984 when it was established by Monika Kruch. I spent a wonderful afternoon with Jérôme Montcouquiol discussing the Galerie and all things Bruegel.
Mr. Montcouquiol discussed with me the recently concluded and very well received exhibit “The Brueghel Dynasty”. The exhibit not only included works from the Galerie, but several private collections contributed works to the exhibit. Included in the exhibit were works from by Jan the Elder, Jan the Younger, Pieter the Younger and others. A highlight of the exhibit, and a work that can be seen in the Gallery, is “The Wedding Feast.” This version differs from many others (and differs from the version painted by Bruegel the Elder) in that two figures can be seen in the loft in the top left portion of the painting.
We spoke about the Galerie’s upcoming exhibition in the Maastricht, Netherlands art fair, where the gallery exhibits each year. Mr. Montcouquiol indicated that they are looking forward to another outstanding show.
The gallery only acquires works of exceptional quality, and strives to showcase works of the Brueghel family as well as major works of other artists of the period.
Galerie De Jonckheere
Paris is one of two locations for Galerie De Jonckheere. This galerie has been catering to Bruegel-related collectors for nearly 40 years. I spent a lovely hour in the Galerie speaking with the staff. The Galerie has had both large scale and more intimate Bruegel-related works, including a wonderful version of the Peasant Wedding Dance by Pieter the Younger (see below). Collectors from North America, Europe and increasingly Russia frequent this gallery to view the latest additions to its collections.
Like many galleries, locating quality Bruegel-related works is difficult in this internet-connected environment. After a new work is acquired, it is reviewed and cleaned to the gallery’s exacting specifications. The works gracing the Galerie’s walls are of the highest standard.
The Galerie has experimented with exhibiting in New York (MANE) as a way to exposure new collectors to its work. This sounds like an ideal way to ensure that new collectors are aware of the magnificence of the Bruegel family.
The Galerie uses its own expertise, with the extensive expertise of Georges and François De Jonckheere, as well as occasionally calling in experts to authenticate works.
In conclusion, both galleries offer outstanding works and are well worth a visit when in Paris. If you aren’t able to visit Paris, the galleries have wonderful websites that can provide a fine view of the current paintings on offer.
Galerie D’Art Saint-Honoré: http://www.art-st-honore.com/en/
De Jonckheere Gallery: http://www.dejonckheere-gallery.com
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
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
BruegelNow 