Cassel rehabilitates the paint with four hands

Cassel (North). For the current art market, nothing is more precious than a work that one can attribute to a single artist. No “school of”, “workshop of”, nor even a collaboration between two stars will equal an autograph work. “A painting only of the hand of Jan Brueghel the old cost more than a table for which he called on another painter. But it may have been otherwise in the 18th centurye century “, Note Filip Vermeylen, professor at the University of Rotterdam, in the catalog of the exhibition “Brueghel & Van Balen, artists and accomplices”.

In the century of Rubens, Frans Snijders and Jan Brueghel the old, these paintings with two signatures are however much sought after on the Dutch art market, and particularly Antwerp. To evoke the 400th anniversary of the disappearance of Jan Brueghel (1568-1625), the Museum of Flanders explores the most prolific of professional relations maintained by the son of Peter Bruegel the Ancient. Jan will indeed work a lot with Hendrick Van Balen (1575-1632), an artist with the command book very full during his lifetime and yet now forgotten, is a type of profile that the museum likes to re-light.

Collaborations hidden by the history of art

The small northern museum has set two ambitious objectives: to awaken the memory of a great painter of figures who fell in disuse, and to make the public understand the functioning of an artistic collaboration in the 17th century. This historical fact, long hidden in the history of art by the romantic vision of the demiurge artist, resurfaced with a collective work published in 2021 (1). The opportunity for this exhibition to explore the open breach.

This exciting subject of collaborations is however not fully exploited by the Musée de Flandre, which chooses a very wise course-perhaps with the laudable objective not to lose the non-specialist public. Presentation of Jan, presentation of Hendrick, then paintings made with four hands: this construction makes it possible to perfectly identify the way of one, the touch of the other, and which does what in collective works. The “how” lighting of these collaborations could have been a little more excavated.

By leafing through the exhibition catalog, the visitor will understand that research has more questions than answers: both on the order and on the realization of these co-creation, the disinterest of the history of art for several centuries leaves large shadow areas. Beyond these uncertainties, the route could have taken advantage of the opportunity to head on the myth of the unique artist, and also to describe the functioning of the art market in Antwerp, a city where collectors were very fond of these four-handed paintings.

Considered separately, the two monographic parts of the exhibition reserve very nice surprises: for Jan Brueghel the old, six superb copper paintings belonging to the same cycle here combined, but also 16 small miniatures on vellum. The room dedicated to Van Balen makes it possible to discover this painter, little known despite his presence in the French collections. Large formats, body paintings taking some liberties with anatomy to better support expressionism: it is almost antithesis in the careful manner and observer of Brueghel.

The marriage of these two styles is surprisingly harmonious, as in The wedding of Thétis and Peléea mythological subject whose Van Balen figures flourish in a Bruegel landscape. Even more spectacular than the allegorical or mythological scenes, the decorative paintings carried out in concert demonstrate all the strength of these collaborations. The museum has thus reserved a place of choice for a Garland of fruit surrounding a representation of Cybele [voir ill.] In the course: a real demonstration of force of the painter of details and landscapes, like the painter of figures.