Dancers at a Village Wedding with the Bride Seated at a Table Beyond
Object type | Drawing |
Genre | Urban, Common and Peasant Life |
Date | ca. 1597 |
Dimensions | 24.1 x 37.9 cm |
Support | Paper |
Medium | Pen and brown ink with brown wash, over black chalk, indented for transfer |
Our attribution | Jan Brueghel the Elder |
Other authorities | Bailey/Walker cat. #LOND.BM.21 |
Location | London, England |
Collection | British Museum |
Accession numbers | RN 1880,0214.25 |
Tags | Dancing, Wedding, Forest, Peasants |
External resources | British Museum |
Information from British Museum website: Preparatory study for painting showing a peasant wedding feast, dated around 1597 (Ertz 2008-10, #566). The present drawing, as pointed out by Bastelaer, is a compilation of several earlier prints and drawings. The dancing figures in the foreground are derived from the engraving 'The Peasant Wedding Dance' by Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel the Elder (New Hollstein 44). The watermill in the central background and the buildings at right are copied from the drawing showing the Bee-Keepers at the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin. Although Bastelaer describes the figures in conversation in the left foreground as copied from a drawing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, inv.no.1455 (another copied version is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, inv.no.13216), their weak drawing style suggests they were both copied from the Hollar etching [query how this is possible??]. This drawing is engraved in reproduction by Hollar in 1650 (New Hollstein 1087), see 1867,1012.576; it is likely the indentations on the sheet were made by Hollar. Hendrik Hondius (New Hollstein 29) earlier copied the figures in the foreground in another print dated 1644, see 1871,1209.1037."