(Antwerp 1601–1678)
An Allegory of Water and Earth,
oil on copper, 50.1 x 39.9 cm, framed

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting following first-hand examination (written communication).

Ertz writes: ‘The state of the present painting can be described as excellent. The paint layers have been implied in a thick impasto, their colours giving a brilliant impression. The overlapping glazes have survived in perfect condition and lend spatial depth to the colour relief. The paints were liquidly and swiftly applied with a broad brush […]. In this Allegory of Water and Earth, Jan Brueghel the Younger, who is certainly underestimated as he was eclipsed by his father throughout his life, proves that he continued the work of his father most consistently and on the highest level. Although many motifs betray that he was the true guardian of his father’s legacy, the painting to be assessed here shows that he added ideas of his own that do not depend on any model and derive from the painter’s own imagination – such as the two large figures in this upright rectangular composition […]. Jan Brueghel the Younger masterfully understood how to combine old ideas with new forms and his own stylistic approach, thereby arriving at new pictorial content.’

Ertz compares the present painting with the following works by Jan Brueghel the Younger:

(1) Allegory of Water and Earth (Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz, Schloss Mosigkau near Dessau, late 1620s),
(2) The Realm of Flora (Pelikan Collection, Hanover, 1630s),
(3) Allegory of Spring (private collection, 1640s),
(4) Allegory of Smell (sale, Charpentier, Paris, 2 December 1955, lot 2, 1640s)

Ertz dates the painting to the 1640s. He points out: ‘The more generous and painterly brushwork, which seems less fragmented, suggests that the painting dates from the 1640s. The artist’s earlier period was dominated by the example of the father’s delicate manner of painting, in which he painstakingly traced each and every tiny detail. In the present allegory, which was painted in his late period, this obsession with detail only manifests itself rudimentarily.’ According to Ertz, the unidentified figure painter contributing to the present painting was influenced by Hendrick van Balen.