Friday 30 October 2015

"Attributed to Jan Brueghel II" is just a copy

Deutsch, from Vienna, sells on 24 November a "Attributed to Jan Brueghel II" allegory of the elements, an oil on copper estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 Euro.


I like Jan Brueghel, even II, and I like copies, as regular readers of this blog will know. But this should never be "attributed" to Brueghel, it is a poor and rather boring partial copy of an easily identifiable work, "The element of Air" or "Allegory of the air with Uranus" (one version, not pictured, now in the Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset), in itself a copy of a work by Jan Brueghel I (first image Brueghel II, next image Brueghel I).

Perhaps it is a good work in a terrible condition, and can it be salvaged with lots of TLC. But I doubt it, it looks to me like one of these works deliberately kept dirty to entice sleeper hunters, but with no happy end in this case.

UPDATE: sold for 2,600 Euro, someone believes there is a salvageable work beneath all that!

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