English: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 48:

Technical notes: The painting’s support is an oak panel (± 0.5–0.7 cm thick) constructed of two horizontal, butt-joined, radial boards with horizontal grain. Bevelling occurs along three edges on the verso (not at the top). The panel has a slight convex warp towards the top along the wood grain. Two short horizontal checks, resp. c. 8.0 cm and 4.5 cm long, extending from the upper right edge, have been reinforced on the verso with fabric tape. Dendrochronological examination and analysis have determined a felling date for the tree between c. 1609 and 1625. The wood originates from the region of Western Germany/ the Netherlands. Under the assumption of a median of 17 sapwood rings and a minimum of 2 years for seasoning of the wood, the most plausible date for use of the panel would be 1621 or later. The verso of the support bears the brand of the coat of arms of the City of Antwerp.

Provenance: Priv. coll., The Netherlands, 1941; Sigurd Meier, Stockholm; bequeathed by Sigurd Meier in 1977.

Bibliography: NM Bulletin 2, no. 1 (1978), p. 9; NM Cat. 1990, p. 220 (as Théobald Michau).

The painting depicts a frontal view of a wide river that occupies nearly half the picture space, flowing straight towards the horizon on the right. On the left, a typical Flemish town or village, with gabled houses set amongst leafy trees, a church and a windmill on a hill in the distance. A thin strip of wooded land is visible on the right. In the near foreground, on the left, is a busy jetty, with rowing boats and sailing boats coming and going, ferrying people and horses along the river. The scene at the jetty is full of narrative detail: a man standing up in a boat full of passengers delivers a child safely into the arms of a peasant woman waiting on the jetty, while a woman in the boat bends forward to wash a piece of linen in the river.

This painting entered the collection as a work of Jan Breughel I. It was later attributed to the Flemish landscape- and peasant genre painter Théobald Michau, an 18th-century imitator of Jan Brueghel I and David Teniers II and was considered as such until its present reattribution. The painting seems stylistically unrelated to signed works by Michau, in the rendering of the landscape, trees and foliage, as well as the figures, which typically tend to be rather stockier in paintings by that artist.1 A close variant version of the present painting – which differs mainly in the staffage of figures, boats and houses – formerly at Brussels, was attributed by Ertz to Brueghel’s son and follower, Jan Brueghel II, and dated to c. 1640.2An attribution to Jan II might be considered also for this painting. The recent dendrochronological examination of the painting’s support provides a further clue as to its authorship: since the panel turned out to be considerably earlier than was previously thought (see Technical Notes), an attribution to Jan II or the Brueghel studio gains ground.

The Brussels and Stockholm pictures are free copies after a recently identified signed original by Jan I, the Village on a River with a Jetty of 1606 that was on the British art market in 2004.3 Another, possibly autograph, variant of this composition was on the Dutch art market in the late 1930s.4 The frontal view of a wide river running towards the distant horizon, its banks lined with trees, houses, churches and with boats ferrying passengers, was a common theme in the work of the Brueghel family. In composition and in narrative detail, these landscapes are derived from a prototype developed by Jan Brueghel I in the early 1600s,5 seen notably in his signed originals at Toledo,6 London,7 and Turin.8 This elegant solution would be unthinkable without the earlier example of Pieter Bruegel I, in his drawing with a view of the village of Baesrode on the river Scheldt, which Jan copied around 1600.9 The painting is of reasonably good quality and appears to be contemporary with Jan Brueghel I; however, it is not sufficiently fine to be attributed to Brueghel himself. CF

1 See, for example, Michau’s signed pendants, the Landscapes with a River, both in oil on copper, 35.5/35.7 x 49.7/50.2 cm, Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, inv.nos. 569, 571; see Ember and Urbach 2000, p. 107, illus. 2 Oil on wood, 54 x 80 cm, sale, Brussels, Fievez, 21 December 1925, lot 57 (as Théobald Michau); for which see Ertz 1984, p. 240 no. 60, illus. (“can be ascribed with some certainty to Jan II”). Ertz lists a second copy of the same composition, also attributed to Jan II, in a private collection, see ibid, p. 240 no. 61, illus. (dated in the “1640s”). 3 Oil on copper, 21.8 x 32.5 cm, signed “J.BREVGHEL 1606”, sale, London, Sotheby’s, 7 July 2004, lot 28. See photograph on file at the RKD, The Hague. 4 Oil on copper, 17.5 x 26.5 cm, formerly Amsterdam, Galerie de Boer, 1937; see Ertz 1979, pp. 184, 577 no. 119. Dated “c. 1605” by Ertz. 5 For a general discussion of this compositional type in the oeuvre of Jan I, see Ertz 1979, pp. 52–57, 184–186. 6 Oil on wood, 35.6 x 64.4 cm, signed “BRVEGHEL 1604”, Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Art, Acc.no. 58.44; see Ertz 1979, pp. 52, 54, 142, 169, 184, 188, 575 no. 106, fig. 23. 7 Oil on copper, 27.3 x 40.6 cm, signed “BRVEGHEL 1606”, London, Wellington Museum, Apsley House, inv. no. W. M. 1574–1948 (Black 18); see Ertz 1979, pp. 52, 54, 69, 80, 169, 184, 188, 580 no. 135, fig. 24. 8 Oil on copper, 19 x 24 cm, signed “BRVEGHEL 160(3) or 160(8)”, Turin, Galleria Sabauda, inv. no. 215; see Ertz 1979, pp.184, 573 no. 95, fig. 211. 9 The drawing by Pieter Bruegel I is in Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. no. KdZ 5763; for which see Mielke 1997, cat. no. 27. The drawing copy by Jan I is in London, The British Museum; see Berlin 1975, cat. no. 60, fig. 90. And cf. Jan’s drawing of a similar river view in Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 19.730; see Essen/Vienna/Antwerp

1997/1998, cat. no. 154.[End]