Joos de Momper - Mountainous Landscape with a Waterfall and Travellers - image-1

Lot 1023 Dα

Joos de Momper - Mountainous Landscape with a Waterfall and Travellers

Auction 1076 - overview Cologne
19.11.2016, 11:00 - Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Sculpture
Estimate: 40.000 € - 60.000 €

Joos de Momper

Mountainous Landscape with a Waterfall and Travellers

Oil on panel. 57 x 98 cm.

Josse de Momper was the son of a painter and art dealer who joined the Guild of Saint Luke in his home town of Antwerp in 1581. He is thought to have travelled to Italy shortly after, as although there is no documentary evidence for this, his motifs betray Italian influence. At the very latest, he must have returned to Antwerp in time for his wedding in 1590.
Momper dedicated his entire career to the landscape genre. He first painted “world landscapes” in the manner of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Paul Bril, but later expanded his repertoire to include hill and dale landscapes, grottoes, and depictions of the seasons. The depiction of mountain landscapes was also to be play a particularly prominent role in his oeuvre.
The present work is an excellent example of his later period, in which his brushwork became more fluid and spontaneous. The present work is comparable to the “Große Gebirgslandschaft” in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which was painted in the early 1620s. In this work we also find the rider on his white horse, who in the present work is shown crossing a high and narrow bridge. The mighty rock formations of the mountain range are depicted here in close up in the right of the image, reaching to the upper margin. The left half of the work opens up onto a panoramic landscape bathed in the golden light of morning. This piece is an excellent example of Josse de Momper's delicate and differentiated use of colour.

Certificate

Klaus Ertz, Lingen, September 2016.