1027 - Joos de Momper

Joos de Momper Sebastiaan Vrancx Vast mountain landscape with a robbery Oil on panel (parquetted). 56.5 x 93 cm. Provenance Collection of A. van Heek, Enschede. – Dorotheum, Vienna, 21–23 March 1932, Lot 34 (attributed to Joost de Momper). – Collection of Dr Hendrik Luitje Straat (1890–1976), Leeuwarden. – Kunsthandel de Boer, Amsterdam, 1965. – Christie’s, London, 27 June 1975, Lot 11. – Sotheby’s, London, 16 July 1988, Lot 41. – Galerie Finck, Brussels, 1984 – Belgian private collection. Literature K. Ertz: Josse de Momper der Jüngere, 1986, p.127, ill. 102., pp. 130, 468. no. 44. Joos de Momper is considered one of the most important Flemish landscape painters of his time. His works mark the transition from the late 16th century to classical Flemish landscape painting of the Golden Age. Klaus Ertz dates this picture to before 1600, as it documents precisely this transitional period. Here, the painter overlooks the vast panorama from a high viewpoint. The shadier foreground, by contrast, serves as a stage for Sebastian Vrancx’s band of robbers. Joos de Momper usually had the staffage executed by fellow painters – Frans Francken II, Jan Brueghel, Pieter Snayers or, as in this painting, by Sebastiaan Vrancx.