Lot 2050 Dα

A myriad of brightly coloured flowers surround a stone cartouche framing a painting of the Virgin and Child. The vibrant colours and natural forms of the flowers create a charming contrast to the monochrome grey and architectural ornament of the stone cartouche.
Jan Brueghel the Younger here collaborates with Pieter van Avont for the painting of the figures, following a Flemish tradition established in the early 17th century by his father together with other artists such as Daniel Seghers. Jan Brueghel the Younger mainly painted flower paintings such as the present work in collaboration with figure painters in the 1640s and 1650s, and thus Fred Meijer dates it to around this time. He compares the work to another painting in a German private collection with similar dimensions, which is also signed (cf. Klaus Ertz: Jan Breughel der Jüngere (1601-1678), Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1984, p. 474f, no. 307).