An auction house appraiser has found a 17th century painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger behind a door in a house in northern France. “The Village Lawyer” (1615-1617) depicts peasants in a greedy law firm, a scene that Brueghel painted dozens of times. The job has been authenticated and it is heading to a auction in Paris on March 28.
The expert, Malo de Lussac, told Hyperallergic he was “very surprised” when he found the painting. The family who owned the work still called it “the Brueghel”, but thought it was a copy. (The paintings origin before the family acquired it in 1900 is unknown.)
“I immediately had a very good feeling about this board,” said de Lussac. “But I preferred to be very careful about his authentication.”
Stéphane Pinta, an expert from the Paris firm Cabinet Turquin, examined the painting with the help of a curator from the Louvre. The team then presented the work to Flemish Old Masters scholar and Brueghel historian Klaus Ertz, who confirmed that it was real.
The work turned out to be not only an original by Brueghel but a rare work of the artist.
“It’s a huge picture,” de Lussac said. At over three and a half feet by six feet, he would be one of the biggest known works by Brueghel the Younger and is also in “exceptional condition”. Daguerre Val de Loire estimates it will sell for between €600,000 and €800,000 (~$638,328 – $851,104).
Pieter Brueghel the Younger is the son of arguably better known artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder, who painted such masterpieces as “hunters in the snow» (1565) and «The Reapers(1565) as well as satirical works such as “Dutch proverbs(1559). Bruegel the Elder was a leading figure in the Northern Renaissance, but his son also made a name for himself. While much of Brueghel the Younger’s work consists of well-executed replicas of his father’s paintings, the artist also created original compositions depicting the fuss and vulgarity (and excessive drunkenness) of the seventeenth-century Flemish peasant life while questioning broader social structures.
“The Village Lawyer” offers a prime example of the artist’s biting social commentary. Brueghel took a more sympathetic approach to his peasant subjects and portrayed the money-hungry lawyer as the obvious villain. The well-dressed man sports a condescending facial expression as he sits behind his desk. According to de Lussac, the lawyer collects taxes from the village farmers. As the desperate townspeople wait, the lawyer hides behind what one can only assume are piles of useless paperwork, literally creating a barrier between him and the poorer people who pay him.
“It’s a critique of the Spanish occupation of Flemish land,” said de Lussac. He pointed out that their lawyer had a “Habsburg face”. Characterized by a protrusion jawthe distinctive appearance was repeatedly depicted in portraits of the Spanish royal family.
Brueghel painted an almost identical version of “The Village Lawyer” which hangs on the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts in Belgium, and another almost identical copy is in the louver in Paris, but the museum believes the work is a follower’s copy.
The newly discovered painting will be exhibited at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris from March 11 to 17 before being put up for auction.
