(Antwerp 1564–1635)
A wooded landscape with a rider conversing with peasants near an overgrown castle,
oil on panel, 49 x 71 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium

The present scene of a monumental ruin, poetically overgrown with verdant foliage and enlivened by bucolic figures is a fine example of the oeuvre of Joos de Momper. Arguably the ‘last of his line’ in terms of the great Mannerist Antwerp landscape painters, the current panel, with its mountainous backdrop so untypical of Flanders and sense of the antique, exudes the influence of formative trips made to Italy by earlier Flemish masters such as Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Here de Momper uses a conventional colour scheme that follows the basic principle of using brown tones in the foreground, green tones for the middle ground, and blue tones for the background. The framing of the present scene is also characteristic of de Momper’s works, incorporating stage-like scenery, bordered by a steep rockface with a vast expanse extending far beyond. This compositional formula is similarly rendered in a Fantastic River Landscape in a German private collection (see K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jüngere [1564–1635], Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalaog, Freren 1986, pp. 519–520, cat. no. 190). De Momper often had specialist figure painters execute the staffage in his compositions, although the present figures may be by the master’s own hand.

Born into a family of artists, Josse de Momper II, often simply acknowledged as Joos de Momper, was arguably the most talented of the de Momper family, and whose art garnered great popularity and influence within his own lifetime. One of the most prolific painters in late sixteenth-century Flanders, de Momper’s art emerged out of the still prominent Mannerist movement before transforming towards an ever-greater realism that was starting to develop in the early seventeenth century. A specialist in mountain scenery, it has long been speculated that de Momper had travelled to Italy via the Alps (though this is not supported by archival documentation). He may have stayed in Treviso (near Venice) where he probably met Lodewijk Toeput, called il Pozzoserrato (circa 1540/59 – between 1603/05).