Maerten Rijkaert

Maerten Rijkaert A pair of circular paintings: Tree-lined avenue with numerous figures and a moated castle (allegory of summer) Snow-covered village square with numerous figures and a bridge in the foreground (allegory of winter) Oil on wood. Diameter 16 cm each. Provenance Private collection P. S. van Gelder (not in his Geneva auction, Ch-D. Cosandier, April 7, 1933). - Unknown auction, lot 90-91, as Jan Brueghel the Elder. - Kunsthandel Walter Paech, as Jan Brueghel the Elder, date unknown. - Privately owned in Belgium for several generations. The two landscape paintings are probably from a series depicting the four seasons. They depict summer and winter. They were previously thought to be works by Jan Brueghel the Elder due to an attribution by Willem Vogelsang, professor in Utrecht (1875-1954). Two circular paintings of similar dimensions, also depicting summer and winter, attributed to Maerten Rijkaert, were on the art market in 1983 (Sotheby's Park Bernet, New York, 9.6.1983, lots 19 and 20, cf. picture archive RKD, The Hague, nos. 280055 and 280056). In its rapid and fluid rendering of foliage, staffage and architecture, the present pair of paintings corresponds to Rijkaert's small-format paintings from the 1620s. We would like to thank Ellis Dullaert of the RKD, The Hague, for valuable information and for confirming the attribution to Maerten Rijkaert (written communication based on photographs dated 23.1.2024).