This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Please note: Artists not classified as American in our database may have limited biographical data
compared to the extensive information about American artists.
 Jan
Brueghel II was the son of the artist Jan Brueghel I. He probably
trained in the studio of his father and then went to Milan to meet his
father’s patron, Cardinal Federico Borromeo. In the spring of 1624 Jan
the younger travelled to Palermo, Sicily, with his childhood friend
Anthony van Dyck. After the sudden death of his father in a cholera
epidemic in Antwerp, Jan returned to the Netherlands, and by early
August 1625 he was back in Antwerp, where he took over his father’s
studio. He sold the pictures left by his father and successfully
completed half-finished works. In 1625 Jan II joined the Antwerp Guild
of St. Luke, and in 1626 he married Anna Maria, the daughter of Abraham
Janssen; they had eleven children.
Jan II headed a large studio with
students and assistants, and in 1630–31 he became Dean of the Antwerp
guild. The same year he was commissioned to paint an Adam Cycle
for the French court. Thereafter, the studio declined and he produced a
number of small paintings in his father’s manner that no longer fetched
high prices. According to an inscription attributed to one of his sons
on the last page of Jan’s journal, which ends in 1651, Jan II was also
in France in the 1650s, working in Paris, although no information has
yet emerged to indicate how long he stayed there and what he painted. In
1651 he worked for the Austrian court. He is mentioned again in Antwerp
in 1657, and various sources indicate that he remained there until his
death.
Like his father, Jan II worked with Rubens and Hendrick van Balen,
and his journal also indicates that he collaborated with such artists as
his father-in-law, Abraham Janssen, Pieter de Lierner, Adriaen
Stalbemt, Lucas van Uden and David Teniers the younger (his
brother-in-law). Jan II tried to stay close to his father’s model and
although the general quality of his work never surpassed that of Jan I,
the distinction between his father’s late work and his own juvenilia
remains problematic. The painted oeuvre of c. 340 pictures by Jan II
includes landscapes, religious, allegorical and mythological themes,
still-lifes and a new picture category, animals in a landscape. His
landscapes can be subdivided according to subject matter: wooded
landscapes, ‘near-and-far’ landscapes, wide landscapes, water
landscapes, village landscapes, landscapes with the Archdukes Albert and
Isabella, Hell landscapes and, finally, landscapes with the Holy
Family.
The wooded landscapes include forest scenes, forest roads vanishing in the distance and close-up compositions of trees, such as Forest Road with Travellers (Florence, Uffizi), Wooded Landscape with Riders (Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum) and River Crossing
(Warsaw, National Museum). A typical example of the ‘near-and-far’
landscapes, all of which appear to be composed in a two-dimensional
mosaic style, is the Wooded River Valley with Road (Basle,
Kunstmuseum). In the wide landscapes, with or without a mill, Jan
repeated the compositions of his father, though with a different
palette, as can be seen in the Attack on a Baggage Train (Madrid, Prado) or in the Landscape with Mills (The Hague, Dienst Verspreide Rijkscollection). His water landscapes, such as the Harbour Scene in Antwerp (Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh) or River Landscape with Wharf
(Sarasota, FL, Ringling Museum), also rely on his father’s example. In
the village landscapes Jan began in his father’s idiom but developed his
own style in the 1640s. Examples are a Village Street with Dancing Peasants (Prague, National Gallery, Šternberk Palace) and a Village Street with Canal (Aschaffenburg, Schloss Johannisburg Staatsgallerie). Of the landscapes with the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, one, of the Royal Castle in Brussels
(Madrid, Prado), was executed in collaboration with Sebastiaen Vrancx.
Some of the paradise landscapes, which again emulated his father’s
creations, were also collaborative efforts; for example, the Paradise Landscape with the Fall of Man
(Madrid, Prado) was carried out with Denijs van Alsloot and Hendrik de
Clerck. Finally, landscapes with the Holy Family were for the most part
executed after his return from Italy in 1625 and are the result of his
collaboration with Hendrick van Balen. The landscape backgrounds were
among Jan’s best, while van Balen painted the figures.
Most of the allegories of the Senses, the Elements, the Seasons and Abundance were executed in the 1620s, while most of Jan II’s mythological themes are joint productions, for example the Rape of Europa (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), with van Balen, or the Banquet of Achelous
(New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), painted with Rubens and his
studio. Jan II’s flower paintings and still-lifes either follow his
father’s models or are variations on them. His flowers are usually less
dense, thinner and less exact in detail, while the picture format is
often narrower or reduced in size. In his cartouche paintings, Jan is
indebted to Daniel Seghers.
Breughel II is represented in the following collections: Fine Arts
Museum, San Francisco; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles;
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
City; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Courtauld Institute of Art, London;
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands; Musées de Lorraine, France;
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan; National Museum Kassel, Germany; Palazzo
Ruspoli, Rome; Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA; Pinacoteca Ambrosiana,
Milan; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City; National Gallery,
Šternberk Palace, Prague; Schloss Johannisburg Staatsgallerie,
Aschaffenburg; Dienst Verspreide Rijkscollection, The Hague; Museum
Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp, amongst others.
Source:
Sphinx Fine Art
http://www.sphinxfineart.com/Brueghel-Jan-DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=45&tabindex=44&artistid=18844
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Biography from Daphne Alazraki Fine Art:
| Please note: Artists not classified as American in our database may have limited biographical data
compared to the extensive information about American artists.
Jan Brueghel the Younger was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder (also known as “Velvet Brueghel”), by whom he was considerably influenced. Brueghel the Younger became well known for his landscapes, allegories, religious subjects, flower pieces and still life. Born in Antwerp in 1601, he received his earliest training from his father. In 1622, Brueghel visited Milan with an introduction to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, an important friend and patron of his father. He subsequently visited Genoa and Palermo. At the beginning of 1625, he learned of Jan Brueghel the Elder’s death, and returned to Antwerp in order to take over his studio.
Brueghel the Younger became a master of the Guild of St. Luke in 1625, and married the daughter of the painter Abraham Janssens in 1626. He became a Dean of the Chamber of Rhetoric in 1630. During this period he was also appointed Dean of the Painter’s Guild. Like his father, Brueghel the Younger often collaborated on paintings with other artists, including Henrik van Balen, Peter Paul Rubens, and Josse de Momper. Moreover, he was often responsible for the ornamentation in paintings by Rubens, Jansens and van Balen.
In the composition, A Concert of Birds, Brueghel has created a visual puzzle for the viewer to solve. Both technically and artistically it is a small masterpiece of the very highest quality. It probably derives from a lost prototype by Jan Brueghel I. Several of the birds in this painting can be found in Jan Brueghel I’s Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, painted in collaboration with Rubens, and also in a study of birds by Jan Brueghel II, which was doubtless based on examples by his father. It is a prime example of Brueghel’s keen observation and lively rendering of natural forms.
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