Friday 29 May 2015

Pieter van Avont

DVC, in Ghent, sells a "Flemish, 17th century" painting of the Holy Family with John the Baptist in a landscape, estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 Euro. According to the description, it was sold in 1946 as by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrik Van Balen I. At first glance, it certainly looks like a Brueghel, but the style and quality aren't there, although it is a very good painting.



Searching further revealed that the central figures are the same (but in reverse) as the ones in a similar painting by Pieter van Avont. The quality of the work seems somewhat lesser though, so an attribution as "Circle of Pieter van Avont" may be the most correct here. The landscape may be by Van Avont or someone else in the same Jan Brueghel II circle, hard to tell. Should be worth the estimate, and if it could be firmly attributed to Van Avont even a bit more.

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