Pelgrims de Bigard collection, Brussels;
Acquired from the above by Charles de Pauw (1920-1984);
His deceased sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 April 1986, lot 3 (as Jan Brueghel the Younger);
With Galerie d'Art St. Honoré, Paris, 1987;
Acquired from the above by the present owners.

K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, vol. III, Lingen 2008-10, pp. 1178-80, cat. no. 545, reproduced (as Jan Brueghel the Elder).

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The artist's copper panel is supported with batons around the framing edges on the reverse and this is ensuring a secure and stable structural support. Paint Surface The paint surface has a rather glossy but reasonably even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light confirms that the varnish layers are very discoloured and that cleaning would therefore be very beneficial. There is no evidence of any retouching under ultra-violet light but it may be that there are some retouchings beneath the old varnish layers that are not identifiable under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and should respond well to cleaning and revarnishing.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The theme of the ‘singerie’ was to become widespread in north European art towards the middle of the 17^th century, especially in Flanders where artists such as David Teniers the Younger created entire societies out of monkeys dressed as men. Such scenes were intended to allegorise the futility of man’s possessions and actions. Jan Brueghel the Elder was the first artist to utilise this genre and, while monkeys do appear in earlier allegorical works such as Brueghel and Rubens’ Allegory of Taste of 1617-18 in the Prado, the present lot is the first example in modern European painting of a work devoted entirely to the subject of man’s replacement by monkeys.¹

Dr. Klaus Ertz, whose study on the painting dated 20 January 1987 accompanies this work, considers the seven monkeys that populate the foreground and the four sitting on the draped table surrounding the plate of fruit to be by Jan Brueghel the Elder, with the remaining parts by his son and chief studio assistant at this time, Jan Brueghel the Younger. The plate of fruit itself would also appear to be from the hand of the elder Brueghel.

A good copy, also on coppe💎r and probably by Jan Brueghel the Younger, was sold 12 December 1984, lot 177.

Provenance
Charles de Pauw (1920-1984), who owned this painting until his death, amassed what must be one of the largest collections of paintings by the Brueghel family ever put together. At the landmark sale of his collection at Sotheby's in 1986, no less than twenty-two works from the Brueghel family workshops were offered, of which only two were unsold.

1. See Ertz, under Literature, pp. 1146-1150, cat. no. 536, reproduced.