Lot 1523 Dα

The passage of time, illustrated by the changing seasons in everyday rural life in Flanders in the 16th century, is the theme of this extraordinary series of four panels by the great Antwerp painter Abel Grimmer. The cycle begins with spring and the planting of beds in geometrically arranged garden. This is followed by summer with the hay harvest and autumn with the slaughter of a pig. The cycle concludes with winter, which is represented by numerous ice skaters.
The composition of this series is based on drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The spring and summer motifs are today preserved in the Albertina in Vienna and the Kupferstichkabinett of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, while the other two are no longer traceable. The drawings were created as models for prints, which were realized by Pieter van der Heyden and published by Hieronymus Cock in 1570. Although the engravings were frequently used as inspiration for paintings, entire series are extremely rare. Such a series by Pieter Brueghel the Younger was auctioned by Christie's in London in 2016 for 6.4 million pounds. Apart from the present works, only one other series by Abel Grimmer is known to exist. This other work has been housed in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp since 1904 and is somewhat smaller than the present one, measuring 33 x 47 cm (cf. Reine de Bertier de Sauvigny: Jacob et Abel Grimmer. Catalogue Raisonné, Paris 1991, pp. 226-229, plates 24, 25, 69 and 70).
In his expertise, Luuk Pijl assesses the execution and painterly quality of these two only known series by Abel Grimmer as completely identical, which makes it almost impossible to determine which of the two was painted first. Luuk Pijl does not rule out that they could have been painted at the same time.
Together with his father Jacob Grimmer, with whom he was also trained and whose workshop he later took over, Abel played an important role in the development and spread of Flemish landscape painting. His works combine landscape scenes with depictions of the everyday life and pastimes of the simple rural population of the southern Netherlands.