Beschreibung:

Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, 1568-1625) Satyrs Observing Diana's Sleeping Nymphs, c. 1620 Unsigned, identified on a label from Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe, affixed to the reverse. Gouache on vellum, sight size 20 x 26 1/2 in. (50.8 x 67.3 cm), framed. Condition: Lined, retouch. Provenance: Private collection, the collection of Fred and Jann Kline. N.B. Created c. 1620 in Antwerp, this gouache was most likely completed as a proposal for a painting and has been translated into two finished oil paintings. In the first, Sleeping Nymphs Observed by Satyrs at Alte Pinakothek, Munich (Inv. No. 344/3884) Jan Brueghel the Elder created the landscape and the dogs while Peter Paul Rubens and studio produced the nymphs and the satyrs. (1) The second work, also a collaboration between Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens is Sleeping Nymphs Observed by Satyrs at Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (Inv. No. 68-3-2).(2) Stylistically, the work presented here reflects the work of Brueghel, most notably its animal figures, in its use of varied, gradual coloring in pure and luminous colors and hazy light emanating from the cloud-covered sun. Also, the composition includes a broad flow of space on the right and the highly detailed figural groupings. (3) This work can be closely compared to Brueghel's Studies of Dogs at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (In. No. 6985) (4) and his Paradise Landscape in a private collection. This subject was not only revisited by Brueghel, as evinced by the comparisons listed above, but also by his son: Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Boeckhorst Sleeping Nymphs Observed by Satyrs at Galerie Waterman, Amsterdam, 1982 (5) This work will be included in vol. II of Dr. Klaus Ertz's forthcoming Jan Brueghel the Elder catalogue raisonne, cat. 356. 1. Ertz, 1979, cat. 358, ill. 477. 2. Ertz, 1979, cat. 355, ill. 471. 3.Ertz (Lingen, August 27, 2007). 4. Ertz, 1979, cat. 312, ill. 466. 5. Ertz, 1979, cat. 357, ill. 473.