Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger at Auction
Mr Albada Jelgersma’s collection also includes one of the largest landscapes Jan Brueghel the Elder ever painted on copper (above),
 Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen
Diana and her nymphs after the hunt oil on oak panel £600,000-800,000 |
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 Pieter Brueghel the Younger Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery oil on oak panel £300,000-400,000 |
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FOUR MAJOR WORKS BY PIETER BREUGHEL THE YOUNGER
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The sale presents an exceptional selection of four major works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger.
The Kermesse of Saint George (estimate: £2.5-3.5 million) is one of his rarest and most original inventions, entirely independent from any of his father’s works and more accomplished than any of his other original compositions. Including this picture, only four securely autograph versions are known. Georges Marlier, the pioneering Breughel scholar, dated the picture to before 1626-28. He praised it for brilliantly affirming the younger Brueghel’s personality, calling it ‘one hundred percent “Breughelian”, not only for the dramatic rhythms that pervade it, but also in the stylisation of the figures and in the colour harmonies. While maintaining the continuity of Pieter the Elder’s art through these themes, his son Pieter gives rein to his own particular vigour, his own taste for anecdote and his own mastery of his profession that is equal to those of the greatest artists.’
The Kermesse of Saint George (estimate: £2.5-3.5 million) is one of his rarest and most original inventions, entirely independent from any of his father’s works and more accomplished than any of his other original compositions. Including this picture, only four securely autograph versions are known. Georges Marlier, the pioneering Breughel scholar, dated the picture to before 1626-28. He praised it for brilliantly affirming the younger Brueghel’s personality, calling it ‘one hundred percent “Breughelian”, not only for the dramatic rhythms that pervade it, but also in the stylisation of the figures and in the colour harmonies. While maintaining the continuity of Pieter the Elder’s art through these themes, his son Pieter gives rein to his own particular vigour, his own taste for anecdote and his own mastery of his profession that is equal to those of the greatest artists.’
From a European Private Collection, The Birdtrap (estimate: £2-3 million) is a superbly preserved example, painted on a single panel, of what is arguably the Brueghel dynasty’s most iconic invention, and one of the most enduringly popular images in Western art. The Birdtrap is a composition of distinctive poetic beauty: in a hilly landscape, blanketed with snow, a merry band of country folk are skating, curling, playing skittles and hockey on a frozen river, in apparently carefree fashion. Yet there are hidden perils, serving as pertinent reminders of the precariousness and transience of life itself: the fishing hole in the centre of the frozen river is a sign of the dangers that lurk beneath the light-hearted pleasures of the Flemish winter; and to the right of the composition birds surround the eponymous trap, seemingly oblivious to its imminent threat. In this remarkable work, executed with poise and great delicacy, Brueghel delivers a message of lasting poignancy about the fickleness and uncertainty of life.
The other works include The Wedding Feast, which is offered from the property of a European Family (estimate: £1.5-2.5 million). The Wedding Feast is not only one of the most iconic images in the Brueghel canon, it is one of the most famous banquet scenes in the history of Western art by virtue of the prototype, the masterpiece
Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Elder now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The picture offered for sale is one of only four recorded autograph versions by Brueghel the Younger and this will be the first to come to the market since the late 1970s. And the final picture by Brueghel the Younger comes from The Cunningham Collection,
The Outdoor Wedding Dance, dated 1621 (estimate: £1.2-1.8 million).
Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Elder now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The picture offered for sale is one of only four recorded autograph versions by Brueghel the Younger and this will be the first to come to the market since the late 1970s. And the final picture by Brueghel the Younger comes from The Cunningham Collection,
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The Outdoor Wedding Dance, dated 1621 (estimate: £1.2-1.8 million).
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