Allegorical Winter Landscape, attributed to Frans de Momper (1603-1660)

Oil on copper, 87 cm by 70 cm. Antique frame, 99 cm by 81 cm. The artist offers us a very beautiful and large allegorical composition on copper, most likely an allegory of winter created in collaboration with a second painter for the figures in the foreground. On the left of our painting, an almost naked old man is sitting against a trunk, warming himself by a fire. Opposite, a crouching child is fanning the flames. This symbolic scene takes place in a vast winter landscape: in the background, a village with snow-covered roofs stretches towards the sea, where a few boats sail under a cold and stormy sky. The bare trees, muted colors, and touches of snow emphasize the icy atmosphere. The scene illustrates an Allegory of Winter: the old man embodies old age and the harshness of the cold, while the child tending the fire symbolizes vitality and renewal. This large copper, most likely painted in the 1640s/1650s, is therefore the result of a collaboration between two painters. We are thinking of Frans de Momper (1603-1660) for the landscape and the figures in the village and for the foreground, possibly Hendrick van Balen II (1623-1621). This is reminiscent of the collaboration of the other Momper, Joos II de Momper (1564-1635) with the other van Balen, Hendrik van Balen I (1575-1632) Frans de Momper (1603-1660) Frans de Momper was born on October 17, 1603 in Antwerp. He was the nephew of Joos de Momper (1564-1635). In 1629, he became a member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. He left Antwerp and moved to The Hague in the United Provinces (present-day Netherlands). In 1647, he worked in Haarlem and Amsterdam. He married the following year in 1649. In 1650, Frans returned to Antwerp, where he painted many monochrome landscapes in the style of Jan Goyen (1596-1656). He was greatly inspired by the work of his uncle Joos de Momper. Frans executed a number of variations on the theme of a river landscape with boats and a village. The figures, however, are very different, one reason for this is that Joos de Momper very often had them painted by Jan Bruegel the Elder and his son Jan Bruegel the Younger, but also Vranck, Van Balen I, Snayers, or Teniers the Younger.