Lot 1013 D α

The composition of the present landscape with the Flight into Egypt follows the artist's near-far landscapes created at the beginning of the 17th century. Jan Brueghel depicts the Holy Family in a wide landscape with other travellers on a mountain path lined with mighty trees. The biblical events are only revealed to the viewer at a second glance.
The picture, painted on a copper panel, is probably a replica of a painting of the same subject in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, dated 1610 (see K. Ertz: Jan Brueghel the Elder, Die Gemälde, vol. II, Lingen 2008-10, no. 235, pp. 518f.). Comparable to another replica in private ownership (K. Ertz, opus cit., no. 235a, pp. 519f.), it matches the St Petersburg landscape down to the smallest detail. This very finely executed work is not listed in Klaus Ertz's catalogue raisonné. It had been in a Dutch private collection for over 80 years. It was acquired as a work by Jan Brueghel the Younger. It is possible that the painting was created with the participation of the workshop.