Friday 29 November 2019

"Tulip market at Lier harbour" isn't at Lier...

Hampel, from Germany, sells on 5 December 2019 a "Philips de Mompere the Younger" "Tulip market at the harbour of Lier", estimated at 35,000 to 40,000 Euro.

The attribution and description are attributed to Klaus Ertz, an expert who has (as the saying goes) forgotten more about Flemish art than I ever knew. They claim to clearly recognise the Saint Gummarus church and the Beguinage, and thus indicate that this painting is very important as a witness of Lier during this period, and how the city tried to overcome economic hardship by using the tulip trade so well known from the Netherlands.

The only problem is that this isn't Lier at all. The original of this painting shows Lier, but this is a copy where the buildings have been changed to (presumably) some imaginary, generalized (and much worse painted) city. Ertz should know this, as he had (according to the RKD) included this painting, which was originally sold in 1979 at Christie's, as "circle of Joos de Mompere" in his catalogue in 1986, and correctly identified the city as Lier.

The most obvious difference is the city hall with the belfry. The actual hall has been remodelled in a neoclassical style afterwards , but the Belfry (with the peculiar top) is clearly the same in the original painting, and clearly different (though based on the real one) in the one for sale.

But also the supposed Saint Gummarus church looks totally different compared to the actual one.

Another version of this work is kept in the Lier City Museum and is attributed to Philips de Mompere as well. The buildings are again very precisely painted (though rearranged in a fictional setting).

The work was previously offered in June 2019 in France, at Tessier Sarrou, with an estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 Euro (I don't know the result of this sale). That auction gave the much better description of "Market in a village square", and a much better attribution of "Follower of Jan Brueghel II".

It almost looks as if a version of the actual Lier painting was found in an unfnished state, and some less talented painter filled in the background with some buildings and churches. Not really Lier...

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