Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed (bottom center): K D Keuninck
Gallery Label Unlike Jan Brueghel the Elder, who was a leading figure in the development of realistic landscape painting, de Keuninck continued the Flemish tradition of imaginary mountain scenery that descended from Joachim Patinir and Herri met de Bles to Pieter Bruegel the Elder and such younger artists as Joos de Momper the Younger. De Keuninck and de Momper were the only important painters of imaginary landscapes who did not emigrate from Antwerp. This large panel is a fine example of de Keuninck's work; it illustrates his concern with contrasting pictorial effects. It probably dates from about 1600.
Notes No other versions of this composition are known. Most of the motifs in the right half of the painting occur in an apparently later canvas by de Keuninck that was at Kunsthandel P. de Boer in Amsterdam in 1960. There is a more general similarity between the right side of our panel and that of de Keuninck's "Fall of Phaeton" in the Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Kiev.
Provenance [Malmedé, Cologne, until 1975; sold to de Boer]; [P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1975]; private collection, Sweden (from 1975); [P. de Boer, Amsterdam, until 1982; sold to French & Co.]; [French & Co., New York, 1982–83; sold to MMA]
Exhibition History Delft. Museum Prinsenhof. "Oude Kunst en Antiekbeurs," October–November 1975, no. ?
Delft. Museum Prinsenhof. "Oude Kunst en Antiekbeurs," October–November 1982, no. ?
New York. Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. "Fine Arts of the Netherlands," November 20–28, 1982, unnumbered cat.
References Hans Devisscher. "Bijdrage tot de studie van de zestiende-eeuwse Vlaamse landschapschilder Kerstiaen de Keuninck." Gentse bijdragen tot de kunstgeschiedenis 26 (1981–84), pp. 103, 139, no. G7, fig. 4.De Leiegouw 26 (March 1984), pp. 18–19, ill.Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 127–29; vol. 2, pls. 110–11 (overall and detail).Kerstiaen de Keuninck, 1560–1633 . Freren, Germany, 1987, pp. 27–28, 30–32, 56, 70–71, 87, 98, 147–48, no. A7, ill.in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America . Antwerp, 1992, pp. 149–51, no. 44, ill. in color (overall and detail).The Age of Rubens . Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1993, p. 459, under no. 81.
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