(Antwerp 1564–1635) and (Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp)
A mountainous landscape with travellers on a path,
oil on canvas, 32.4 x 44 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably Collection Nicolaes Sohier (1590–1642), Amsterdam;
probably Collection Louis de Geer the Elder (1587–1671), Amsterdam;
Collection A. F. N. Gyldenstolpe (1799–1864), Finspang Palace, Sweden;
Collection Carl Edvard Ekman (1826–1903), Finspang Palace, Sweden;
by inheritance to Maria Adlercreutz (1898–1993), Höja Säteri;
Private European collection

Literature:
L. von Röök, Catalogue des Tableaux de la Collection de Finspang, 1809, no. 85 (“Un Paysage Montagneux par Jean Breughel de Velours, le Paysage par Josse Monsie”);
L. von Röök, Catalogue des Tableaux de la Collection de Finspang, 1823, no. 43;
O. Granberg, Catalogue raisonné de tableaux anciens inconnus jusqu’ici dans les collections privées de la Suède, vol. I, Stockholm 1886, p. 84, no. 164;
G. Göthe, Tafvelsamlingen pa Finspang, 1894, no. 64;
O. Granberg, Inventaire général des trésors d’art en Suède, Stockholm 1911, vol. I;
E. Malmberg, Marieholm, in: Svenska Slott- och Herresäten, 1920, p. 117, ill. p. 119;
O. Granberg, Svenska Konstsamlingarnas Historia, vol. III, Gustav III – Charles XIII, 1931, p. 74;
H. Frykenstedt, Jean Jacques och Aurora Taube de Geer af Finspang och deras värld, 1987, p. 196;
T. Filtenborgs et al., Jordaens: The Making of a Masterpiece, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, and Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2008, p. 115

Klaus Ertz has identified the figures in the present painting as being by the hand of Jan Brueghel I on the basis of a photograph. In addition to its artistic quality, the painting is remarkable because of its interesting provenance. It was probably commissioned by the rich Amsterdam merchant Nicolaes Sohier for his newly built town house “Het Huis met de Hoofden”. In 1632, Sohier sold the house and its contents to the equally wealthy Amsterdam dealer and industrialist Louis de Geer the Elder. De Geer, a producer of canons, had purchased the Swedish metal foundry at Finspang in 1618. During the Thirty Years’ War, he managed to accumulate a huge fortune. In 1757, when his heirs sold their Amsterdam property, they brought the art collection, still kept in the town house at the time, to their palace at Finspang. The family continued to own the palace until 1854, when it was sold to the industrialist Carl Edvard Ekman. In 1920, the present painting was still installed in the Grand Salon at Finspang Palace.