Peter Paul Rubens, studio of
Jan Brueghel the Younger - Diana and her Retinue after the Hunt - image-1

Lot 1451 Dα

Peter Paul Rubens, studio of Jan Brueghel the Younger - Diana and her Retinue after the Hunt

Auction 1057 - overview Cologne
14.11.2015, 11:00 - Old Master and 19th Century Paintings and Drawings
Estimate: 100.000 € - 120.000 €
Result: 117.800 € (incl. premium)

Peter Paul Rubens, studio of
Jan Brueghel the Younger

Diana and her Retinue after the Hunt

Oil on canvas (relined). 102 x 140 cm.
Signed lower centre: I. Brueghel.

The present work is not only impressive in its size and the vividness of its colouring, but also boasts an interesting provenance. It carries the signature of Jan Breughel the Younger to the centre, indicating that he was responsible for its facture and that he painted the parts which he was most talented in depicting - the landscape and the foreground. The large mythological and allegorical figures which populate this image were not his forte. Klaus Ertz mentions several similar images in his expertise in which Brueghel the Younger also painted the landscapes, but for which the figures have not been ascribed to any specific artist. Due to the monumentality of the work, the tentative attribution “Ruben's workshop” has been suggested for the figures in this piece. The work displays stylistic similarity to “The Feast of Acheloüs” in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (K. Ertz: Jan Brueghel d. J., 1984, cat. no. 252) but also to a work entitled “Schlafende Nymphen, von Satyrn belauscht“ (Ertz, op. cit., no. 242). The figures in the latter piece are attributed to Jan Boeckhorst, a Frankfurt born artist who was active in Antwerp and also worked for Rubens.

Certificate

Gustav Glück, 22.1.1916 (Rubens and Jan Brueghel I). - Max Friedländer 6.8.1942 (Rubens' studio and J. Brueghel II). - J. Müller-Hofstede 4.10.1992 (Rubens' studio and Jan Brueghel II). - Dr. Klaus Ertz, 24.9.2015 (Rubens' studio and Jan Brueghel II)..

Provenance

Galerie Charles Sedlmeyer, Paris, ca. 1885 (labelled to the reverse). - Vietgest Castle, Landkreis Rostock. - Inventory and art collection confiscated by the Russian troops. - Restituted to a German aristocratic family in 1992. - Purchased from them by the current owner.