Jan Brueghel the Younger Hendrick van Balen Diana's... Lot 2032

Jan Brueghel the Younger Hendrick van Balen Diana's nymphs after hunting Oil on wood (parqueted). 49,3 x 75 cm. Expert opinion Dr. Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 23.4.2001. Provenance Private collection Belgium. The joint work of Jan Brueghel the Younger and Hendrik von Balen the Elder is presented in bright and rich colors. In the foreground three nymphs spread out their catch from water, field and forest. In the background their companions are having fun in the cool water of a pond. The collaboration with Hendrik van Balen the Elder has a tradition in the Brueghel workshop. Van Balen was already consulted by the elder Jan Brueghel (1568-1625) for mythological and Christian themes, and was later also the preferred collaborator of Jan II. Klaus Ertz describes in his expert opinion the very good state of preservation of the painting. The colors are fluid and broadly applied in quick strokes, the glazes create plasticity. According to Ertz, this "painterly, spirited brushstroke" indicates a period of origin towards the end of the 1920s. During this period, Brueghel, together with Balen, created four other paintings with comparable subject matter and similar painting style, which Ertz uses for comparison, including a compositionally closely related painting "Diana's Nymphs after the Hunt" in private German ownership (see Ertz 1984, cat. 243, color plate 50), which Ertz meanwhile also dates to the late 1920s. The landscape and the animals are by Brueghel's hand. The female figures are the work of Balen. In their softness and fullness, the women are reminiscent of the models of Rubens, on whom Balen oriented himself especially in the period between 1625-1630. Before that, he was more inspired by the slimmer figures of Hans Rottenhammer.