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Allegory of Vanity: The Feast of the Monkeys

Allegory of Vanity: The Feast of the Monkeys

Object type Painting
Genre Allegory
Date ca. 1621
Dimensions 26 x 34 cm
Support Copper
Medium Oil
Signature BRUGHEL . 162. (false?)
Collaborators Jan Brueghel the Younger
Our attribution Produced in Jan Brueghel's Studio
Other authorities Ertz 2008-10, #545
Location/Most Recent Sale Sotheby's, London, July 3, 2013, inv. #22 for 602,500 GBP
Tags Feasting, Vanitas, Monkey, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Fruit
Ertz 2008-10, cat. #545, pp. 1178-80
20th century Brussels Collection of Pelgrims de Bigard
Brussels de Pauw Collection
Apr 9 1986 London Sold Sotheby's, #3, as Jan Brueghel the Younger
Paris Gal. d'art St-Honoré
Jul 3 2013 London Sold Sotheby's for 602,500 GBP as Jan Brueghel the Elder
E.A. Honig
August 9, 2012

Ertz had originally attributed this as a collaboration between Jan the Elder and Jan the Younger.

The monkeys are, in some cases, directly based on those in the oil sketches, #s 583 & 584a. THere are numerous further versions of this picture; one may soon be hanging in the Rubenshuis.

According to Sotheby's a good copy of this work, also on copper and probably by Jan Brueghel the Younger, was sold by them on December 12, 1984, lot 177.

E.A. Honig
August 5, 2013

Charles de Pauw (1920-1984), who owned this painting until his death, amassed what must be one of the largest collections of paintings by the Brueghel family ever put together. The sale of his collection at Sotheby's in 1986 included twenty-two works from the Brueghel family workshops.