A pair of miniature landscapes - Peeter Gijsels (1621 - 1690)

PEETER GIJSELS
1621 - 1690
“A pair of miniature landscapes with an animated village and a windmill”
Oil on copper
One Signed lower right: “P. Gys”
Provenance: Consul General and Director Henry Wallenberg
Dimensions: 9 x 11cm, 17 x 19 cm (framed)

The Artist

Peeter Gijsels was a Flemish Baroque painter based in Antwerp, best known for his jewel-like landscapes, architectural capriccios, and flower still lifes. Although no formal apprenticeship is documented, Gijsels’ work shows a clear kinship with the Brueghel tradition, so much so that it has long been speculated that he may have worked in the orbit of **Jan Brueghel the Younger**, son of the celebrated Jan Brueghel the Elder. His paintings often echo the rich narrative detail, vivid palette, and miniaturist technique associated with that lineage, while incorporating his own touch of crisp linearity and delicate handling.

Gijsels worked almost exclusively for the open market, catering to an elite clientele in Antwerp and beyond. He favoured the copper support for its smooth surface and ability to hold minute detail, often producing small-scale works intended for the collector’s cabinet,  private, contemplative works of art that reward close viewing.

The Artwork

This exquisite pendant pair offers a remarkable example of Gijsels’ refined, small-format landscape painting. Executed in oil on copper, the compositions are not only technical marvels of precision but also narrative vignettes brimming with anecdotal life.

**The right panel** depicts a vibrant riverside village under a broad, moody sky. Boats drift across the shimmering water, villagers converse on docks, and life hums along the facades of tall, brick-built houses with red and ochre hues. The landscape opens into a sweeping panorama, the river drawing the eye into a deep, atmospheric distance. Plumes of smoke curl from chimneys, and a shaft of golden light pierces through the overcast blue, a dramatic effect that lends poetic warmth to the busy domestic setting. This panel bears a signature and can be compared with a closely related miniature in the Historisches Museum Frankfurt (inv. no. Pr661), once part of the famed Prehn cabinet of miniatures.

**The left panel** presents a companion scene in a more pastoral register. A tall wooden windmill presides over a scattering of houses and rural labourers, their tiny gestures animating the ochre soil and freshly tilled fields. The warm light of evening stretches across the landscape, touching treetops and rooftops, enhancing the sense of serene productivity. Though unsigned, this panel matches the first in size, horizon line, and atmospheric handling, reinforcing their conception as a pendant pair.

Together, the paintings reflect Gijsels’ deep immersion in the Brueghelian idiom, filtered through his own delicate hand. His work evokes a world of ordered harmony and rural vitality, framed within the intimate format prized by 17th-century collectors. In these two works, narrative, nature, and artistry meet in perfect miniature.