Couton-Veyrac-Jamault, a Nantes auction house, part of the Ivoire Group in France, sells on 29 September 2015 as lot 30 an "Attributed to Pieter Balten (1527-1584)" Kermesse of Saint George, oil on panel of 51 by 68 cm, estimated at 8,000 to 12,000 Euro.
It is a very nice picture, and the attribution may very well be correct, but these paintings from the painters from the entourage of Pieter Bruegel I and II, or from their followers, are often rather hard to pinpoint, with many close variations given to different painters seemingly depending more on the expert than on true artistic differences.
By far the closest work I could find was sold by
Christie's in 2013 for £30,000, as a "Circle of Marten Van Cleve I" (ca. 1527-ca.1581). At 77 by 108cm, it is considerably larger than the one for sale now, but apart from that it is remarkably similar in nearly every detail. Some things have been moved, e.g. the child with the hoop and the joker in yellow, directly to the left of the tree in the Balten, are placed to the right of the tree in the Cleve. Both works are most likely made by the same artist, and otherwise are at least copies of each other or directly of the same source. The Christie's work, by virtue of being bigger, contains more details (the onion tower in the background is reminiscent of the massive Hoogstraten Church) and appears somewhat better painted, and is worth more as well.
Another, farther removed work is the above by Gillis Mostaert (1528-1598) from the Soissons City Museum in France. While the differences are much more obvious, quite a few details and sections are the same, like the two-horse carriage to the right.
I would consider the one for sale to be by the same hand or studio as the Christie's one. Whether this is Cleve, Balten, or someone else, is not clear. It should fetch its estimate quite easily as a good, popular work in the Brueghel style.
UPDATE: sold for 14,000 Euro, above the highest estimate, as expected.
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