(Antwerp 1564–1635) and (Antwerp 1601–1678)
A wide mountainous landscape with travellers,
oil on panel, 31 x 41 cm, framed

This painting is accompanied by a certificate issued by Klaus Ertz (9 August 2018).

Ertz writes: ‘The present painting can be said to be in very good condition. The brilliant colours have been applied in a thick impasto. The overlapping, translucent glazes were added in a final step and are excellently preserved, as are the white highlights along the edges of the rocks and leaves. The explicitly painterly landscape approach is entirely typical of Momper’s late mountainous and rocky landscapes.’

To confirm the attribution, Ertz refers to the following paintings, all of which are joint products by J. de Momper (landscape) and J. Brueghel II (figures and animals):

(1) Mountainous landscape with gypsies (Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, late 1620s);
(2) Mountainous landscape with travellers (sale, Fischer, Lucerne, 1984, late 1620s);
(3) Vast mountainous landscape with resting travellers (Enschede, Collection Arn. Van Heek, 1953, late 1620s);
(4) Mule caravan (Nancy, Musée des Beaux-Arts, late 1620s)

Ertz continues: ‘Compared to Josse de Momper’s earlier mountainous and rocky landscapes made before 1620, the later examples are much more painterly. If removed from its context, an individual rock detail could no longer be recognised as such, but has become an integral part of the composition that cannot be detached from it. Characteristic features of Momper’s painted oeuvre are, among other things: the broad brushwork, applied to the panel generously and liberally; the streaky bands of colour for the paths and the sky; the contours of the treetops and rocks, painted with a pointed brush; the contrasts of light and dark, which lend his pictures an unbelievable “depth”.

All of the paintings referred to here for comparison date from the period shortly before 1630. The present picture is similar to them in terms of composition, colours, and painterly expression and must therefore also be assigned to the years around 1630. The typically Flemish colouring of the landscape perfectly “fits in” with the way the garments of the figures are coloured.’