This expansive landscape exemplifies one of the most successful artistic collaborations in early 17th-century Antwerp. Joos de Momper II, renowned as the "Painter of Mountains", created the sweeping landscape composition, while Jan Brueghel the Younger added the animated figures and detailed foreground elements. The painting demonstrates the seamless integration of two artistic visions, reflecting the natural affinity between the artists that resulted in their long and fruitful collaboration—a partnership Jan Brueghel the Younger inherited from his father, Jan Brueghel the Elder, who had collaborated with De Momper on approximately 200 paintings over the course of 40 years or more. [1]

The composition masterfully employs aerial perspective, with colors shading from warm browns and ochres in the detailed foreground, through rich greens in the middle ground, to atmospheric blues and grays as the landscape recedes into the misty distance. De Momper draws on the conventions of the "world landscape" developed by Joachim Patinir, but incorporates more realistic elements, lowering the viewpoint and adding more explicit detail to the landscape itself. The scene is closed off by majestic trees at the left, their foliage painted with warm autumnal tones, drawing the viewer's eye to the right and far into the seemingly infinite landscape beyond.

At the center of the composition, groups of travelers—peasants with livestock including cattle, sheep, and a donkey, along with a horse-drawn cart—wind their way slowly along a golden-hued road that leads through the landscape. These figures, painted by Jan Brueghel the Younger with characteristic attention to detail and narrative charm, provide human scale and animation to the vast panorama. In the middle ground, a church with a distinctive spire nestles among dense woodland, while beyond it the landscape opens to reveal an expansive plain with scattered villages, winding rivers, and distant mountains dissolving into the atmospheric haze. Birds punctuate the luminous sky, adding to the sense of depth and natural observation.

The painting showcases de Momper's virtuosic technique: the wooded landscape is painted in rapid, confident strokes, while very fine brushwork enlivens details throughout the composition. His creative approach draws on a variety of compositional motifs developed throughout his career, demonstrating why his name became so closely associated with mountain landscapes during his lifetime and in the centuries since. De Momper trained with his father, Bartholomeus de Momper, and became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1581. During the 1580s he travelled to Italy, most likely first going to Venice where he probably studied with Lodewijk Toeput (called Il Pozzoserrato) before continuing to Rome, where he has been identified as working in the church of San Vitale. This transalpine journey had a lasting effect upon the young artist, and the mountainous vistas he encountered would define his artistic production for decades.

Upon his return to Antwerp before 1590, where he married Elisabeth Gobijn on 4 September 1590, De Momper immediately achieved financial success and attracted powerful patrons such as Archduke Ernest, Governor of the Netherlands. The success of his early career is illustrated by his ability to purchase the house 'De Vliegende Os' on the Vaarplaats in 1596, and by the praise lavished on his skill for "painting landscapes excellently with a clever technique" in Karel van Mander's Het Schilderboeck of 1604. [2] He served as dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1611-12.

In 1616, Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, governess of the Southern Netherlands, granted him tax exemptions at his request, as in his later years he was unable to paint as diligently as before and was spending considerable sums at local taverns. De Momper's fame as a landscape painter was such that in the extremely popular Iconography, a series of portrait prints of artists based on Anthony van Dyck's designs (circa 1632-44), he is described as Judocus de Momper Pictor montium Antwerpiae (Josse de Momper, Antwerp Painter of Mountains). [3] Not until the 1620s did he expand his oeuvre, adding Walloon landscapes and village scenes to his production. Some of his panels have an overtly Swiss flavor, such as his depiction of the great Swiss national hero William Tell in his Alpine Landscape with William Tell Shooting at the Apple in the collection of Raimond Gregoire, Les Loges en Josas.

Despite his early financial success, De Momper's later years were difficult. He died in Antwerp on 5 February 1635. Nevertheless, his numerous mountainous landscapes and their enduring popularity secured his reputation as one of the foremost landscape painters of the Flemish school.

The partnership between the De Momper and Brueghel families represents one of the most enduring and successful collaborations in Flemish art history. Joos de Momper's expansive, imaginative landscapes provided the perfect stage for the Brueghels' meticulous figure work and detailed foreground elements. The division of labor was clear: De Momper created the sweeping panoramic views with their distinctive atmospheric perspective and bold compositional structures, while the Brueghels animated these spaces with staffage—travelers, peasants, animals, and genre scenes that brought human warmth and narrative interest to the majestic natural settings. The seamless integration of these two elements reflects not merely technical skill but a genuine artistic sympathy between the collaborators.

Jan Brueghel II was baptized in Antwerp on 13 September 1601, the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder (known as "Velvet" Brueghel) and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He received his first lessons in painting from his father. In May 1622, he travelled to Italy, where he worked at the court of the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who had also been patron to his father. In Genoa he worked together with his friend Anthony van Dyck and met the brothers Lucas and Cornelis de Wael, who convinced him to work for them. [4]

Upon receiving news of his father's death in January 1625, Jan II returned to Antwerp. He became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1625 and took over his father's workshop. In 1626, he married Anna Maria Janssens, daughter of the prominent history painter Abraham Janssens. He enjoyed immediate success and cooperated with many of the artists his father had collaborated with, including Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick van Balen, Joos de Momper, and many others. He was appointed dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1630 and 1631. Jan II Brueghel could count several of the era's important power-holders among his clients, such as Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Governor of the Netherlands, and the Duke of Savoy. He died on 1 September 1678 at his home on the Pruymenstraat in Antwerp.

Jan II Brueghel followed his father not only thematically—painting flower pieces, landscapes, and animals—but also stylistically. His technical mastery and faithful adherence to his father's manner were so complete that it is not always easy to distinguish his work from his father's. This continuity allowed him to seamlessly continue the collaborative partnerships his father had established, including the latter’s extraordinarily productive relationship with Joos de Momper.

Dr. Fred G. Meijer, authority on Flemish painting and former Senior Curator at the RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History), has examined this work and confirmed the attribution: "Judging from the photograph, it is indeed a fine work and the attribution to Joos de Momper II seems absolutely correct to me. The staffage is entirely in the style of Jan Brueghel I, but not by his hand, so Jan Brueghel II seems to me to be eligible for this. A dating in the 1620s seems appropriate to me.” [5]

This dating to the 1620s places the work during a particularly mature phase of De Momper's career, when he was expanding his repertoire beyond purely mountainous landscapes, and after Jan Brueghel the Younger had returned to Antwerp (1625) and taken over his father's workshop and collaborative relationships.

END NOTES

[1] See Klaus Ertz and Christa Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625): Critical Catalogue of the Paintings, Luca Verlag, 2008. The collaborative relationship between Jan Brueghel the Elder and Joos de Momper was one of the most productive partnerships in Flemish art history.

[2] Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-boeck, Haarlem, 1604, fol. 295v.

[3] For more on de Momper’s life and work, see K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jüngere: (1564-1635): die Gemälde mit kritischem OEuvrekatalog, Luca Verlag, 1986.

[4] For more on Jan II Brueghel’s life and work, see K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der Jüngere (1601-1678) die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Luca-Verlag, 1984.

[5] Dr. Fred G. Meijer, former Senior Curator at the RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague. Written opinion, 4 October 2025.