LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on panel

Measurements:

48.03 in. (122.00 cm.) (height) by 67.05 in. (170.30 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed and dated ‘P• BRVEGHEL• 1607’ (lower left)

Exhibited:

Zurich, Kunsthaus, on loan, 2007-2013.

Literature:

Notice des tableaux exposés au Musée d’Anvers, Antwerp, 1829, p. 8, no. 18, as ‘Pierre Breughel, dit le vieux’; ‘Tableau qui fourmille de figures: il est remarquable par les idées bizarres qu’il représente’. Catalogue du Musée d’Anvers, Antwerp, 1849, pp. 131-2, no. 173, as ‘Pierre Breughel, le vieux’; second edition, Antwerp, 1857, p. 148, no. 255, as ‘Pierre Breughel le jeune’; and third edition, Antwerp, 1874, p. 75, no. 31, as ‘Pierre Brueghel le jeune’.W. Burger [T. Thoré], Musée d’Anvers, Paris, 1862, pp. 71 and 164, no. 255, as ‘Pierre Bruegel le jeune’; ‘grande et curieuse composition’.A. Michiels, ‘Brueghel des Paysans’, in C. Blanc (ed.), Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles: école flamande, Paris, 1864, pp. 6 and 8, as ‘Pierre Breughel le vieux’.F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche Schilderschool, I, Antwerp, 1883, p. 441, as ‘den Helschen Breughel’ [Pieter Brueghel the Younger].Catalogue du Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts d’Anvers, Antwerp, 1891, no. 31.G. Glück, Breugels Gemälde, Vienna, 1932, p. 79, no. 67.G. Marlier, Pieter Brueghel le jeune, Brussels, 1969, pp. 38 and 282, no. 5, and p. 284, under no. 13.C. de Tolnay, P. Bianconi, Tout l’oeuvre peint de Bruegel l’ancien, Paris, 1981, p. 114, no. 88.Catalogue du Musée d’Anvers, Antwerp, 1988, p. 62, no. 31.K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen, 1988/2000, I, pp. 396 and 405, no. E396.

Provenance:

(Possibly) Victor-Amadeus of Savoy, Prince of Carignan (1690-1741); (†) Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, 30 July 1742 and the following days, as ‘du Vieux Breugel’; ‘Un Tableau sur bois de cinq pieds de large sur trois pieds huit pouces de haut, représentant un Calvaire avec quantité de fgures’; Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, 18 June 1743 and the following days, lot 16, as ‘du Vieux Breugel’.(Possibly) Anonymous sale [Le Duc de Chabot, Wattelet, Baron de Breteuil, de Jully, d’Angevilliers et Robert]; A.J. Paillet, Hôtel de Bullion, 23 May 1780 and the following days, lot 100, as ‘le vieux Breughel’; ‘Un grand Tableau représentant le Calvaire. Ce morceau d’un grand détail est peint sur bois par le vieux Breughel’.The Bishops of Antwerp, Episcopal Palace, Antwerp, probably until the French Revolution. Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, by 1827, and deaccessioned in 1897 (in exchange for another version of the same composition and a Sermon on the Mount) to the following.Mme. Ernest-Isidore-Hubert Slingeneyer de Goeswin, and by descent to Robert Slingeneyer de Goeswin, Villers-Cotteret; Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1981, lot 70.Anonymous sale; Christie’s, New York, 10 January 1990, lot 180 ($1,375,000).with Johnny van Haeften, London, 1992.with Richard Green, London, 1995.Anonymous sale [Property from a European Collection]; Sotheby’s, London, 5 July 2006, lot 20 (£5,160,000).