Jan Brueghel II (Antwerp 1601-Antwerp 1678) & Joos de Momper II (Antwerp 1564-Antwerp 1...

In this delightful composition by Jan Brueghel II and Joos de Momper II, the pathway from the harbour is filled with lively activity as figures hasten to gather up the fish that have spilled from a basket. A woman in a red skirt and blue apron kneels on the ground to retrieve the catch while turning to look up at another woman who exclaims in disbelief over the mishap. Several laden donkeys wait patiently on the path as their owners scramble around, one on his hands and knees. A figure with her back to the scene waves at a mother and child who appear at the doorway of the large fortified tower that dominates the landscape. Above the pair, the edifice looms with its many arches, arrow slits and cannon mounted on the battlement facing out to sea. This distinctive and imposing structure is clearly derived from the work of Brueghel II’s father, Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625).

Brueghel I lived in Italy for seven years and in that time made a number of studies of ruins in and around Rome, which he later employed in paintings. Some of these images keenly resemble the present construction, such as two drawings, both dating from 1593, depicting the Tomb of Scipio on the Appian Way.¹ Brueghel I was to take inspiration from the drawings in at least four landscape paintings: The Calling of Saints Peter and Paul, in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (inv. No. 883), Fish Market (The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew) in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, as well two paintings in private collections, one of which is Fishermen on the Shore. The Hermitage painting is almost a mirror image of A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen with their Catch by a Ruined Tower, as the fortification is built on a hill to the left of the composition and to its right the highly similar winding pathway to the harbour is flanked by fishing boats. There is a greater number of figures and added commotion in the foreground of Brueghel I’s archetypal work, which, although ostensibly an image of a crowded fish market, represents Christ’s calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew. Fishermen on the Shore, in Sudeley Castle, features a tower on the right, as in the present painting, but on the left, the body of water stretches to the foreground of the composition without the pier in the distance.

The broader context of these landscapes by father and son, placing the tower on a high spur overlooking a harbour, echoes a drawing recorded by K. Ertz in the Beck Collection, Berlin, which may in turn have been inspired by Paul and Matthijs Bril, with whom Brueghel I was to come into contact during his time in Italy. The tomb in Matthijs Bril’s drawing of Scipio’s Tomb, on the Via Appia in Rome, in the Musée du Louvre, and its positioning atop a hill resembles the present structure. A drawing of 1606 by Bril, sketched in Rome, of a landscape with a fortified tower on a spur overlooking a harbour with a winding natural jetty is so similarly conceived to the present work that it seems they must be connected in some way. Another painting by Brueghel II, in a private collection, depicts a coastal landscape with a capriccio of Scipio’s tomb, once again featuring the familiar round tower jutting from a mound of ruins.

The composition of A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen with their Catch by a Ruined Tower is effectively an adaptation of two distinct, but related, motifs employed by Brueghel I: the Scipio tomb on a spur overlooking a harbour and the tower overlooking a harbour by a winding pier, both of which appear to be influenced to some degree by Bril. These two motifs are seamlessly merged by de Momper in the present work with a naturalness that reveals the closeness between the artist and the father of his collaborator. The friendship between Brueghel I and de Momper is well known: as early as 1612-1613, Brueghel I claimed to have painted the figures in six paintings by de Momper, in addition to the staffage for a series of The Four Seasons. An example of their production together is Rock Landscape with a Waterfall in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, dated to c.1610. In a letter to Ercole Bianchi in 1622, penned on Brueghel I’s behalf by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), he specifically referred to de Momper as ‘Mio amico Momper’, and collaborative works by the two artists were sufficiently common to appear with dual labels in David Teniers II's cabinet pictures.

Brueghel II's staffage is similarly linked to his father's models. The group as a whole does not occur in any of Brueghel I’s known works, but elements of it do: specifically, the horses and mules and the male figures kneeling and stooping over the basket of fish, as well as, in reverse, the male figure carrying a basket on his back. All these elements appear, in admittedly different arrangement, in the Dresden and St. Petersburg paintings. Interestingly the minor motif of the mother and child by the tower are also, in reverse, in the latter pictures, although not the charmingly lifelike detail of the woman in the foreground group turning to wave to them. Father and son both painted highly engaging representations of men, women and children in what appear to be spontaneous and natural activities. In A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen with their Catch by a Ruined Tower, it is entirely plausible that a basket of fish has just been spilled and the people gathered around are hurriedly attempting to rescue their food and livelihood. Brueghel II’s Landscape (Parting of Tobias and his Mother) in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, equally captures a glimpse of what, although a pastiche of realistic and imaginary events, seems to be a simple and uncontrived representation of a rural scene. The gesturing of the figures is, as in the present work, highly expressive, as a woman strains to reach something from her boat while a man sits on the bank fishing and on the right, Tobias and his mother embrace each other fondly.

Brueghel II’s oeuvre demonstrates that he was able and willing to adapt his father's compositions - he was, for instance, to revisit the general theme of A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen with their Catch by a Ruined Tower in a Coastal Landscape with Fishermen by a Capriccio of Scipio's Tomb of 1642 (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 908) as well as the related A Coastal Landscape with a Capriccio of the Tomb of the Scipii; however, the cutting and regrouping of his father's figure types in the fashion of the present picture is unusual, although not unknown, and, together with the peculiarities over the broader compositional development, strongly suggest that this picture derives from a lost prototype, whether drawn or painted, by Brueghel I. The present painting is therefore likely to date from relatively shortly after Brueghel I's death, when such a work was most likely to have been to hand for both Brueghel II and de Momper II to study and learn from.

Brueghel II trained in his father’s highly successful Antwerp studio before leaving for Milan to meet his father’s patron, Cardinal Federico Borromeo. At the age of twenty-three, he travelled to Palermo, Sicily, with his good friend Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), although his journey was interrupted by Brueghel I’s sudden death in a cholera epidemic. In 1625, Brueghel II returned to Antwerp and took over his father’s studio, where he initially completed and sold the unfinished works found there as well as executing his own compositions. In the same year he joined the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke and soon afterwards married Anna Maria, the daughter of the artist Abraham Janssen (1575-1632), with whom he had eleven children. Brueghel II was in charge of a large studio and rapidly rose to prominence, being promoted to dean of the Antwerp Guild in 1630. That same year he was commissioned by the French court to paint an Adam Cycle. In the following years, he also produced paintings for the Austrian court, and worked independently in Paris, before returning to Antwerp by 1657. He collaborated with a number of prominent artists including Rubens, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632), Pieter de Lierner, Adriaen Stalbemt (1580-1682), Lucas van Uden (1595-1672), David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) and his father-in-law Janssen.

Like Brueghel II, de Momper II received his training from his father. By the age of seventeen, he was registered as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke by his father, Bartolomeus de Momper (1535-after 1589), who was dean at the time. He followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming dean of the guild in 1611. De Momper II proved to be the most skilful and eclectic artist in his family and was an engraver and draughtsman as well as a landscape painter. He achieved prominence in his day and over five hundred paintings have been attributed to him, although few are signed and only one is dated. He specialised in panoramic or fantastical landscapes in the manner of Joachim Patinir (1485-1524) as well as landscapes in the tradition of Brueghel I, in which the forms are depicted with greater realism.

De Momper II’s panoramic landscapes follow the scheme of late Mannerist landscape painting with their brown tones in the foreground, changing to green in the mid-ground and finally blue in the background, as exemplified by the present work, as well as in his earlier collaboration with Brueghel I. In both works the foreground of the composition is characterised by rapid, flowing brushstrokes that define the contours of the scene, contrasted with a less precise application of dashes and dots of colour to represent the distant views. In A Coastal Landscape with Fishermen with their Catch by a Ruined Tower, the progression of colouring and brushwork perfectly harmonise with Brueghel II’s captivating depiction of the rural inhabitants, creating a dynamic and spellbinding image.

¹ Paris, Louvre, Cabinet des Estamps, inv. No. 364, possibly after a Matthijs Bril prototype; and Paris, Fondation Custodia.