(Antwerp 1601–1678) and (Lier 1612–1659 Antwerp)
Diana and her Nymphs after the hunt,
oil on copper, 17.5 x 26.4 cm, framed

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting. His written certificate, from January 2023, accompanies the present lot. Ertz dates the present painting to the late 1630s.

Klaus Ertz writes about the present painting: ‘This painting of high quality can be said to be in very good condition. Like his father, Jan Brueghel I, Jan Brueghel the Younger dealt with the subject of mythology in general and with the theme of Diana particularly intensively throughout his career, providing varied landscape backdrops for the figures painted by colleagues specialised in figure painting. As both Brueghels (father and son) were not capable of painting large allegorical or mythological figures, they resorted to the collaboration of figure painters among their colleagues – a phenomenon especially typical of Flemish painting in the first half of the seventeenth century. Besides Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick van Balen, Frans Francken the Younger, and Pieter van Avont, this group of figure painters also included Frans Wouters, among others. While models for this wooded landscape can be found in the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder, Wouters’s figures are influenced by Pieter van Avont and Peter Paul Rubens. Having been apprenticed to Avont, Wouters then switched to the workshop of Rubens.’