Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625) & Joost De Momper (1595-1672): Animated rocky coastal landscape with the temple of the Sibylle at Tivoli, oil on panel

Work: 49 x 38 cm

Frame: 66 x 55 cm

The painting is accompanied by a certificate from Dr. Jaco Rutgers (all observations done on the basis of an inspection and in-depth study of the painting).

"Among the distinguishing factors of Antwerp painting of the early modern period are the many collaborations between the individual masters. Famous among these are the ones between Jan Brueghel the Elder and his friends, among others Peter Paul Rubens and Hendrick van Balen. Slightly lesser known to the general public are the many collaborations between the same Jan Brueghel and Joos de Momper the Younger. Some of their collaborative works are already mentioned in old inventories, as well as in the diary kept by Jan’s son Jan the Younger. In most of the known works, a mountainous landscape by Joos is enlivened by small figures added to the composition by Jan. As a specialist in landscape paintings, De Momper often invited colleagues to ornate his pictures with small staffage figures. In the case of this Coastal Landscape with Fishermen displaying their Goods, the collaboration appears to have been of a different nature. The subject matter, a coastal landscape, is atypical for Joos and rather seems an invention by Jan. As will be argued here, this painting is actually even based on a composition by the latter. The many figures give the composition a strong anecdotal quality and therefore are indispensable for the painting. Both the relatively larger ones in the foreground and the tiny ones in the distance were clearly added by another hand than the landscape and architecture. Obviously, it was the hand of a gifted artist who had experience in painting this type of staffage figures. The swift and relatively broad brushstrokes are typical for Jan Brueghel the Elder, who, as mentioned earlier,
more often collaborated with Joos de Momper in this capacity. Examples of these collaborations can be found in major museums, like the Statensmuseum for Kunst in Copenhagen (inv. KMSsp213 and KMSsp214) and the Museo del Prado in Madrid (inv. P001443 and P001591).

Moreover, quite a few of the figures appear in the same poses as staffage in other compositions. For instance, the man with his red shirt and yellow pants carrying a basket of fish lower right can also be detected in The Large Fish Market with Self-Portrait of 1603 in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. 1889), just right of the horse-drawn-cart lower left.3 A similar greyhound can be found in an oil sketch with different types of dogs in different poses by Jan Brueghel the Elder which is kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 6985). Undoubtedly, it was one of many so-called stock figures used time and again by the artist. Some of these were only assembled in oil sketches around 1615 after having been used for decades. And the muleteer with his donkey centre left also appears in Coastal Landscape with the Calling of St. Peter of 1608 in the Gemälde Galerie Alte Meister, Dresden (inv. 883).5 Dating the staffage is not easy, although the slightly elongated figures seem to point to the second decade of the seventeenth century. It is also how
they appear in, for instance, the drawings Jan made during his trip to Spa in 1612. The landscape and architecture were rendered by Joos de Momper the Younger. His typical hand
can be recognized in the accurate brushstrokes, locally applied translucently to make use of the warm ochre tint of the top grounding layer of the panel. And his style is also apparent in the distinguishing colour scheme with a preference for shades of brown and green. The landscape in A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen displaying their Goods compares well to that of other collaborative pictures, for instance, Mountainous landscape with the Temple of Vesta, formerly with Galerie Hoogendijk, and Odysseus with the Nymph Calypso in the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna (inv. 583). The first, with the figures by Jan Brueghel the Elder, is generally dated to the last years of the first decade of seventeenth century and the latter, with figures by Hendrick van Balen, to the middle of the second decade.

The paintings by Joos de Momper are difficult to date because of the lack of dated and firmly documented works. There is general agreement on the development of his style, however. His later work, for example, is characterized by a looser handling of the brush, a more opaque use of paint and a growing intensity in his use of colors. These specific features cannot be recognized here, as already partly explained above. So, this coastal landscape seems to date from well before 1620, purely on the basis of De Momper’s contribution alone. A date of around the middle of the second decade of the seventeenth century, suggested by Brueghel’s figures and De Momper’s landscape style, is confirmed by a dendro-chronological investigation by Professor Dr. Peter Klein. He proposes an earliest creation of the painting as being possible from c. 1612. The subject of a coastal landscape with classical ruins was popularized by the prints of Aegidius Sadeler, published in Prague in 1606 in the series Vestigi delle antichità di Roma, Tivoli, Pozzuolo et altri luochi. For the prints with ruins by the sea, Sadeler used preparatory drawings by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Stevens. And indeed, from around this time onwards, it is a recurring theme in the paintings from the workshop of Jan the Elder and sometime later his son, Jan the Younger. Coastal Landscape with the Calling of St. Peter of 1608 in Dresden was already mentioned
above and another one, dated 1609, is in a private collection. This particular ancient ruin is based on the Temple of Sybil at Tivoli close to Rome. Many artists made the trip into the hills east of Rome to render these Roman remains in their drawings. And consequently, it became a popular motive in landscape paintings and prints of the late sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century. It figures also in one of the engravings by Aegidius Sadeler from the Vestigi series.

The composition of our Coastal Landscape with Fishermen displaying their Goods can also be recognized in a drawing which was sold as a work by Jan Brueghel the Elder with Sotheby’s in New York in 2002. This drawing is dated lower left: ‘1608’, and inscribed on the reverse: ‘den 8 februarie 1608.’ Even details, like the donkey and muleteer in the left middle ground, are included in both the drawing and the painting, so the assumption that there is a firm relationship between the two seems justified. The drawing, however, is not by Brueghel himself but seems a copy after him. The date on the drawing probably refers to the original since it is close in date to the afore mentioned two painted coastal landscapes with ruins created in 1608 and 1609, respectively. This makes it very likely that Joos de Momper based his landscape on a Brueghel invention and also had the staffage included by the inventor of the composition. This newly discovered collaborative work by Joos de Momper the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder, A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen displaying their Goods, is a very welcome addition to the oeuvres of both artists. Furthermore, the relation of the painting to the related drawing presented here sheds new light on the nature of their collaboration and their working methods. As such, the painting greatly contributes to our knowledge and the tentative date of c. 1615 could be the starting point to new datings of other works by both painters."
 

Ref.:

- A very similar 1608 dated drawing (pen in brown ink, blue and brown wash on paper) by Jan Brueghel I ('Capriccio van een rotsachtig kustlandschap met motief van de tempel van de Sibylle in Tivoli') is part of the RKD database (link, see also the picture with the RKD watermark). This drawing naturally supports the authorship of Jan Brueghel I.

Condition: (UV-checked)

- The painting in good and hangable condition.

- The UV-light shows foremost some retouching in the sky and -typical- along the joints. Nevertheless, the restorations don't alter the original aspect of painting and composition at all.

- The UV-light shows also some normal traces of old varnish.

- Two smaller cracks in the lower part of the panel.