(Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp) and (Antwerp 1575–1632)
A forest landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt,
inscribed with an inventory number ‘43’ (lower left),
oil on panel, 57.1 x 79.6 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination of the original (written certificate, dated 1 February 2013, is available).

We are also grateful to Jaco Rutgers for confirming the attribution (an expertise, dated 24 February 2016, is available). Dr Rutgers will include this painting as the central focus for a forthcoming article that he intends to publish.
The composition is known from further versions, all of which are based on a signed joint product by Brueghel and Van Balen from 1604 in a German private collection (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, vol. II, Lingen 2008–10, p. 533, no. 244). The present painting was still unknown to Ertz when his monograph on Jan Brueghel I went into print. Due to stylistic comparisons with the painting published, Ertz also dates the present picture to the period around 1604. He writes: “Cat. 244 introduces the year 1604 with a thematic and compositional curiosity that, within a few years, would develop into one of the focal points of his activity. By then Jan the Elder had not painted a single flower painting out of his own accord that would concentrate exclusively on the motif of flowers. However, the flowers in the foreground of cat. 244 already anticipate this future fascination of his […]. Cat. 244, with its foreground dominated by flowers, can thus be regarded as an overture to the painter’s interest in flowers and still life, which would furiously set in two years later, in 1606.”