Provenance:
Mudd Collection, United States; De Jonckheere Gallery; private collection
Continuing the themes of Pieter Brueghel, Abel Grimmer evokes the four seasons in many of his paintings....
read moreProvenance:
Mudd Collection, United States; De Jonckheere Gallery; private collection
Continuing the themes of Pieter Brueghel, Abel Grimmer evokes the four seasons in many of his paintings. The portrayal of the seasons plays a predominant role in Flemish art, beginning in the 15th century with the illuminations painted in the books of hours. These are considered by experts as the beginnings of the invention of landscape. Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Lucas van Valckenborch adopted this theme and made it the main subject of vast compositions filled with life and poetry. These large paintings, disseminated through engraved reproductions, inspired the painters of Abel Grimmer’s generation. The latter naturally copied the subjects produced by his elders while adding his own mark: a stylisation of the forms and the introduction of powerful colours.
Our panel of Summer executed by Abel Grimmer is a brilliant interpretation of the famous drawing by Pieter Brueghel the Elder . This drawing, which is a jewel of Flemish mannerism, inspired numerous artists including his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Not all refer to the drawing itself, but rather to the engraving of it made by Pieter Cock around 1570. Engraving flourished in Antwerp in the 16th century and was an excellent means of distribution. Hence, artists were familiar with the works of their contemporaries.
The resolutely modern arrangement of the figures gives the work its exceptional character. In the foreground, the man bending over to drink literally pierces the viewer’s field with his imposing scythe. His foreshortened legs attract the viewer’s gaze. This figure is an allusion to the famous Laocoon group, discovered in Rome in 1506. This caricature of the harvester quenching his thirst to the point of falling over is what gives the work all its piquant. Close by, a peasant woman is hidden by the immense basket of fruit she is carrying on her head. Perhaps it is the illustration of one of the famous Flemish proverbs, according to which a melon tastes just as delicate as a woman?
Abel Grimmer makes the most of his model through his fabulous palette of colours. Our version, which is similar to the one kept at the museum in Antwerp , is particularly well executed. The pure, resounding colours give the painting all its strength. The tender green fields stretch towards a crystalline horizon from which a discreet windmill emerges. The foliage on the trees, the artist’s true signature, echoes the pleasing roundness of the features. Grimmer’s talent for depicting the seasons is well known: with Summer, the artist allows us to experience the warmest months. Combined with the Brueghel’s mischievous spirit, the painter from Antwerp provides us here with one of his finest works.
Circa 1570 - Antwerp - 1618
Abel Grimmer, a painter from Antwerp, was the son of the landscape-painter Jacob Grimmer, with whom he carried out an apprenticeship before acceptance as a Master of...
read moreCirca 1570 - Antwerp - 1618
Abel Grimmer, a painter from Antwerp, was the son of the landscape-painter Jacob Grimmer, with whom he carried out an apprenticeship before acceptance as a Master of the Guild of the Painters of Saint Luke in 1592.
He was the specialist of series devoted to the Four Seasons and Twelve Months, which resemble panel transpositions of miniaturist calendars.
He was a contemporary of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and, like him, though in a highly personal fashion, interpreted certain engravings and models designed by Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Hans Bol. He thus remained deeply attached to the spirit and rather archaic conception of the XVI century.
He is characterized by strict, precise graphics, a synthetic vision of nature following in the foot-path of the primitives and miniature painters, a composition with schematic lines, and great subtility in the choice and juxtaposition of the tones.
If we hardly knew the extent of his work, it may be said of him that he “simplified nature with a charming, poetic naivity, together with a great mastery of workmanship”. His pictorial style, which combines a highly personal realism of the landscape with a stylisation of nature and architectures, today appears strangely modern to us.
