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The Bittern-Hunter

The Bittern-Hunter

Object type Painting
Genre Landscape
Date 1605
Dimensions 42 x 71 cm
Support Panel
Medium Oil
Signature BRUEGHEL 1605
Our attribution Jan Brueghel the Elder
Other authorities Ertz 2008-10, #36
Ertz 1979, #113
Location Dresden, Germany
Collection Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Accession numbers inv. #881
Tags Hunting, Traveling, Birds, Horse, Forest, Stream, Road, Wagon
Ertz 1979, cat. #113, fig. 35
Ertz 2008-10, cat. #36
1708 Antwerp Acquired by Gemaldegalerie
1722 Dresden Gemaldegalerie, Inventory of 1722, inv. #A 806
E.A. Honig
January 28, 2014

This is ostensibly a variant of a questioned work in the Prado dated 1603. Ertz also considers as autograph variants his 1979 #s 117 and 272. The latter is however a very different composition.

In Ertz's book on Jan the Younger he lists many further variants on this:

  • EJBII #18: Prado (panel, 46 x 75, inv. #1427) which looks like a terrible painting in poor condition and is actually a variant with very different staffage. ERtz dates late 1620s
  • Ertz JBII #19: identical copy formerly art market, Paris (Galerie Aaron 1983, panel, 43.5 x 73.5) which he dates late 1620s
  • Ertz JBII #20: a quite altered and much more heavy-handed variant in private collection (panel, 24 x 32.5, sig. & d. Brueghel 1612) which Ertz dates to 1630s
  • Ertz JBII #21: identical copy Bourg-en-Bresse, Musee de l'Ain (panel, 46 x 75) dated to 1630s.