Signed and dated “P.BREVGHEL, 1621”
The marks of the Antwerp Guild can be found on the back.
Provenance
Collection of Georges Legrand, advisor of Louis XIV (1643-1715);
Private...
read moreSigned and dated “P.BREVGHEL, 1621”
The marks of the Antwerp Guild can be found on the back.
Provenance
Collection of Georges Legrand, advisor of Louis XIV (1643-1715);
Private collection
In 1570, one year after Brueghel the Elder’s death, Hieronymus Cock made a series of four engravings representing the Seasons. This was a commission made to Brueghel the Elder five years previously of four drawings that Cock would have carved. But the artist, then established in Brussels did not have the time to finish the work and only delivered the first two drawings: the drawing ‘The Spring’ held at Albertina in Vienna, signed BRVEGEL and dated 1565 ; ‘The Summer’ held at Kunsthalle in Hamburg, also bearing [B]RVEGEL (the B is missing following a gash ) and dated 1568. With the death of Brueghel the Elder, Cock asked Hans Bol to quickly send him the drawings of the Autumn and the Winter so that the series of the four plates could be finished in 1570.
These prints were the inspiration for some of Pierre Brueghel the Younger’s most finest paintings. Abel Grimmer also took inspiration from them but the way in which each of them asserts himself are individual and their versions are totally different. Whereas we know of certain series of Grimmer that have been kept together, it appears that Pieter the Younger’s series were already broken up at an early stage. Perhaps Grimmer was not used to splitting up this kind of work, whereas Brueghel was prepared to deliver a season on its own at a client’s request.
The harvest period, the summer, as it is portrayed in this painting, is more than just a specific period in the normal sequence of the seasons. The summer is the full bloom of life, it is the grand finale of the earth’s abundant productivity generated by the sun’s fruitful powers. These are very close and specific ties that bond man’s life with that of the earth in the ripeness of the renewal.
One can feel a very special style in the handling of this expressive setting. In the torpor of the month of August, the fertility of the earth is heavily present under the stifling midday sun. There is no air: no foliage, not a single ear of corn moves. The figures blend naturally into the
vast yellow landscape, which is almost entirely covered in rusty and golden coloured wheat, emphasizing the outline of the field. In the foreground on the left we see the reaper of the drawing hard away at work, who, with his individual plastic qualities conjures up an alliance of mutual authorities to ensure the peasants’ life, that of the earth and of their common everlastingness. In the far distance there are other reapers, gleaners, binders and even more tiny silhouettes of figures carrying sheaves, busy in the two vast fields of ripe wheat.
In the front on the right, a group of peasants have stopped work for a rest. The theme of this midday meal is identical to the group of Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s large painting, the Harvest, held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The eight peasants, grouped together in the shade of a tree, are eating and drinking. A woman farmer dominates the group and stands out because of her smart clothes. She has an elegant air with her large straw hat and her white apron tied over her green skirt.
Brussels 1564 - Antwerp 1638
The eldest son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, he settled early on in Antwerp where he received his training in the studio of the landscape artist, Gillis van...
read moreBrussels 1564 - Antwerp 1638
The eldest son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, he settled early on in Antwerp where he received his training in the studio of the landscape artist, Gillis van Coninxloo. He was made a Master in 1585. He was only five years old when his father died in 1569, so he was not able to initiate his son in painting. His mother, the daughter of painter Pieter Coecke d’Alost and she herself a painter, died when he was only an adolescent, but it seems she contributed to his apprenticeship. In 1588 he married Elisabeth Goddelet with whom he had seven children.
He was nicknamed "Hell" Brueghel even though scenes of hell were an exception in his work. There were two sides to Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s work. In the beginning, he returned to a great number of his father’s paintings and developed several versions. He added his personal touch by introducing variants, including the importance he gave to landscape, as well as his own colours that were livelier and of greater purity than those used by his father.
The second period began around 1615-1620. During this time, he asserted his personality through the creation of original paintings, which met with great success at this time, also inspiring several replicas. His son Pieter Brueghel III and Frans Snyders, the famous painter of still lifes and animals, were his students. Besides prolonging the work of his father, Pieter Brueghel II held a significant position in the 17th century especially through his fine brushwork and the purity of his colours. He influenced every Flemish painter in his century.
He had a particularly fruitful career, extending over nearly half a century, and was highly successful during his lifetime.
