Lot 1241 Dα

This "Village Landscape" by Jan Brueghel the Younger and was part of a private collection in Cologne in 1956, as proven by the Lempertz storage number still visible on the reverse. However, the piece was never sold at auction, but was rather returned to the owner along with the rest of their consigned possessions, explaining why the work was never photographed. It was recently rediscovered in the Rhineland.
This piece is one of three very similar compositions from Jan Brueghel the Younger's late period, which Ertz dates to circa 1640 (K. Ertz, op. cit., no. 74 and 75 and his current expertise). Although the dimensions and motifs of the paintings are almost identical, the present work is more richly detailed, for example the extra geese that the painter has added to the edge of the pond and the jetty, and two sailing boats in the distance to the right. The view shown in the painting is also slightly wider when compared to the other two known versions. The house on the left is not cut off by the edge of the painting, and the large oaks are slightly further away from it. Thus, the busy village scene is surrounded by more of the sky, which is scattered with fluffy summer clouds accenting the pastoral atmosphere of the piece. Although the detail of the shepherd watering his horse at the pond is a motif from Jan Brueghel the Elder (K. Ertz: Jan Brueghel I, vol. I, p. 363), the general feel of this work, painted 15 years after his death, is entirely different. The composition is lighter, less detailed and more picturesque.