Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed (right, on window): ·P·BREVGHE[L]
Notes The panel has been cradled. The composition is original with Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and is known in perhaps five autograph versions [Ref. Marlier 1969 lists eight or nine versions, and Ref. Ertz 1988/2000 includes twelve]. A panel of identical size, signed in the same place, is in the Staatliche Galerie, Dessau. A version, possibly by David Vinckeboons (signed with monogram said to be his), was in the collection of Eugen Friedländer, New York, in 1939 [see Ref. Wehle and Salinger 1947].
Provenance ?Grazioso Enea Lanfranconi, Pressburg, Hungary (until 1895; his sale, J. M. Heberle, Cologne, October 21, 1895, no. 20, as "Flemish Children's Holiday," by Pieter Bruegel the Elder); Gustav Ritter Hoschek von Mühlheim, Prague (by 1907–d. 1908; cat., 1907, no. 15; his estate sale, G. Pisko, Vienna, March 24, 1909, no. 9, as "Feast of the Rosary"); Aaron Naumburg, New York; [Ehrich Galleries, New York, by 1925–1927/32; sale, American Art Association, New York, November 3, 1927, no. 71, as "Children's Party," for $625 to Quackenbush, or bought in and sold to Quackenbush by 1932]; George Gilbert Quackenbush, New York (from 1927/32; his estate, until 1939)
References Wilhelm Martin. Galerie Gustav Ritter Hoschek von Mühlheim in Prag . Prague, 1907, pp. 10–11, no. 15, pl. 15. Theodor von Frimmel. Lexikon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen . 2, Munich, 1914, p. 220. Gustav Glück in De Helsche en de Fluweelen Brueghel en hun invloed op de kunst in de Nederlanden . Exh. cat., Kunsthandel P. de Boer. Amsterdam, 1934, p. 8. Gustav Glück in Die Jüngeren Brueghel und ihr Kreis . Exh. cat., Palais Pallavicini. Vienna, 1935, p. 7. Margaretta M. Salinger. "The Whitsun-Bride by Pieter Brueghel the Younger." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34 (April 1939), pp. 88–90, ill. Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings . New York, 1947, pp. 162–63, ill. Georges Marlier. Pierre Brueghel le Jeune . Brussels, 1969, p. 370, no. 2. Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 25–27; vol. 2, pl. 14. Klaus Ertz. Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564–1637/38): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog . Lingen, Germany, 1988/2000, vol. 2, p. 764, no. 1043. Ingrid Ciulisová. "Acquired and Dispersed: The Collections of Grazioso Enea Lanfranconi and Baron Karl Kuffner." Ars 40, no. 1 (2007), p. 58, fig. 3.