A Winter Landscape

Circle of Joos de Momper II (1564–1636).

Ca 1630. Oil on wood

The landscape painter Joos de Momper II specialised in seasonal rural landscapes, which were admired by domestic and foreign art lovers. Art researchers have attributed over 2,000 paintings to de Momper, although few bear his signature. His best works were made in cooperation with Jan Brueghel the Elder, who added the figures to de Momper’s landscapes. The majority of de Momper’s paintings were studio productions; figures were often commissioned from the studio of Jan Brueghel I.

The painting in the Mikkel collection is a good example of high-quality studio production; its composition and choice of motifs are typical of the cooperation between Joost de Momper and Jan Brueghel the Elder between 1615 and 1620. If we try to attach a name to the hands that executed the painting at de Momper’s studio, it could be Frans de Momper, the master’s cousin, or Philips de Momper, the master’s son, who both worked at the studio in the first half of the 1620s.