Entitled “Between Heaven & Terre, masterpieces of a French collection”, this set of forty works included several canvases from the Brueghel dynasty, from Brussels.
A collection of paintings, ranging from the 15th to the 19th century, was sold at auction for almost 14 million euros on April 30 by the Maison Artcurial, in Paris. Four oils on panel by Pieter Brueghel le Jeune, as well as two copper works of his brother Jan Brueghel the former, found a buyer for a total amount of 6.2 million euros. Among them, “the harvest, allegory of the summer” was sold for almost 3 million euros after five minutes of auction. This Pieter Brueghel the Young canvas was exhibited to the public in Brussels last January, before being sold in Paris. Another artist canvas, “the preaching of Saint John the Baptist”, was sold for 1.6 million euros.
A triptych of Vrancke van der Stockt, another painter from Brussels, also crossed the million euros. This “extremely rare” collection had been formed in the early 2000s by a couple of collectors. It brought together paintings made in the ancient Spanish Netherlands in the 15th and 16th centuries, in Flanders in the 17th century, as well as in Brittany in the 19th century. Almost 95% of the prizes offered found takers. Jan Brueghel the old (1568-1625) and Pieter Brueghel le Jeune (1564-1638), famous for his village and festive scenes, were both sons of Pieter Brueghel the Ancien (1525-1569), a major figure in Flemish painting alongside Jan Van Eyck, Jérôme Bosch and Pierre Paul Rubens.
