Woodland Landscape with Travelers on a Path
Object type | Painting |
Genre | Landscape |
Date | 1611 |
Dimensions | 20.3 x 31.8 cm |
Support | Copper |
Medium | Oil |
Signature | BRUEGHEL 1611 |
Our attribution | Jan Brueghel the Elder |
Other authorities | Ertz 2008-10, #71 Ertz 1979, #176 |
Location/Most Recent Sale | London, Johnny van Haeften Ltd. |
Tags | Traveling, Cattle, Horse, Forest, Road, Wagon |
I have a few attribution doubts, because two cows don't look very good to me--heavily outlined, and on one the head is too small. Yet density of brushwork even in ground plane makes it more likely that this is a real Jan Brueghel.
There is a drawing associated with this painting in Stockholm, Nationalmuseum. Ertz says that Winner had some doubts about this drawing. But here is a strange thing: in the drawing the horses are correct, but in the painting the outer rear one has no legs and the inner rear one seems as if none of his feet is touching the ground. This combined with the cow problem leads me to question this painting, nice as it is. Perhaps a studio work drawing on various discrete model drawings? Oddly, in Ertz #72, which repeats same wagon and horses configuration, there are once again no legs on that one rear horse.
this picture was displayed at TEFAF in Maastricht in 1990