Soldiers in Forest Clearing
Object type | Painting |
Genre | Landscape |
Date | 1607 |
Dimensions | 32.8 x 42 cm |
Support | Panel |
Medium | Oil |
Signature | BRUEGHEL 1607 |
Our attribution | Jan Brueghel the Elder |
Other authorities | Ertz 2008-10, #67 Ertz 1979, #150 |
Location | Kassel, Germany |
Collection | Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister |
Accession numbers | inv. #GK52 |
Tags | Traveling, Horse, Forest, Soldiers, Road |
External resources | Germäldegalerie Alte Meister |
Ertz lists as possibly autograph one formerly with T. Engell, London (1979 catalog #348). Judging from the photo (which is also all that Ertz has seen) that painting is very weak, not even near Jan Brueghel. Panel 33 x 43.5. A perfectly good version is Ertz 1979 #263 in The Hague, DVRK, sig. & d. 1612.. Thus these two are dated five years apart. I would guess that this was one of those cases where paintings were begun at the same time and then one version left not entirely finished until it had a buyer, at which time it was completed and dated.
Another horribly wooden version sold Vienna (Dorotheum) 11.iii.80 #152 as Vrancx & Jan the Younger (panel, 35.5 x 53.5). An even less good version sold Brussles, Amédée Prouvost 20.vi.28 #106 (canvas, 41 x 48); and an extremely lousy version sold London (Sotheby xi.59). Is that same as one with Brian Koetser, London, 1972 (panel, 30.8 x 45)?