Lot 2032 Dα

This joint work by Jan Brueghel the Younger and Hendrik von Balen the Elder, painted in rich, bright colours, shows three nymphs spreading out their catch from water, field and forest in the foreground whilst their companions are enjoying themselves in the cool water of a pond in the background. The collaboration with Hendrik van Balen the Elder had a long tradition in the Brueghel workshop. Van Balen was already consulted by the elder Jan Brueghel (1568 -1625) for mythological and Christian themes, and was later also the preferred collaborator of Jan II.



In his expertise, Klaus Ertz describes the excellent state of preservation of the painting. The colours are applied fluidly and broadly in rapid strokes, the glazes create plasticity. According to Ertz, this "painterly, spirited brushstroke" points to a period of origin towards the end of the 1620s. During this period Brueghel, together with Balen, created four other paintings with comparable subject matter and similar painting style, which Ertz uses for comparison, including a compositionally closely related painting "Diana's Nymphs after the Hunt" in private German ownership (see Ertz 1984, cat. 243, colour plate 50), which Ertz meanwhile also dates to the end of the 1620s. The landscape and the animals are by Brueghel's hand. The female figures are the work of Balen. In their softness and fullness, the women are reminiscent of the models of Rubens, on whom Balen oriented himself especially in the period between 1625-1630. Before that, he was more inspired by the slimmer figures of Hans Rottenhammer.