The Vicomte d'Angers, his sale, Brussels, 20 June 1925, lot 18 (as attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger);

Abingdon sale, London, Sotheby's, 7 ♛June 1928, lot 115, for £1500 to M. J. Isaacs (as Pieter Brueghel the Younger);

With Paul Cassirer, London;

Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Schloss Roh🎶oncz, by 1929;

His daughter Baroness Gabrielle Bentinck-Thyssen, her sale, London, Sotheby's, 6 December ๊1995, lot 88 (as follower of Pieter Bruegel the Elder);

By whom sold ('The Prop𝓀erty of a Nobleman'), London, Sotheby's, 10 April 2003, lot 10, when acquired bꦯy the present owner (as follower of Pieter Bruegel the Elder).

  

Munich, Neue Pinakothek, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, 1930, no. 50 (as by Pieter Bruegel the Elder);

Lausanne, Fondation de L'Hermitage; Paris, Musée Marmottan; Tokyo, Kumamoto-Toyama-Miyagi; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts; Luxembourg, Musée de l'État, La Collection Bentinck-Thyssen, 1986–87, no. 8 (as Pieter Bruegel the Elder). 

E. Michel (ed.), Bruegel, Paris 1931, p. 80 (as Pieter Bruegel the Elder);

G. Glück, Brueghels Gemälde, Vienna 1931, no. 73 (as Pieter Br𒈔ueghel the Younger);

C. de Tolnay, Pierre Bruegel l'Ancien, Brussels🉐 1935♍, p. 97, no. 60 (as attribution uncertain); 

M. J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, vol. XIV, Leiden 193🍎7, p. 60, no. 32 (as Pieter Bruegel the Elder);

R. Heinemann, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Zurich 1937, vol. I, no. 62;

G. Jedlicka, Pieter Bruegel, Der Maler in seiner Zeit, Zurich 1938, p. 540 (as attribution doubtful);

V. Denis, Tutta la pittura di Pieter Bruegel, Milan 1952, p. 34 (as Pieter Brueg𒈔el the Elder);

G. Glück, Das Grosse Bruegel-Werk, Vienna 1951 [check], no. 88 (as Brue♛ghel the You🔯nger);

P. Roberts-Jones et al., Bruegel: the Painter and his world, 1969, p. 99 (under former attributions);
 
P. Bianconi, The Complete Paintings of Bruegel, Milan 1969, p. 105ꦍ, no. 43 (as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and d🌄atable to '1565?');

M. J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol.ꦯ XIV, Leiden and Brussels 1976, p. 45, no. 33, reproduced pl. 41 (as Pieter Bruegel the Elder);

P. and F. Roberts-Jones, Pierre Bruegel l'Ancien, Paris 1997, p. 328 (under 'Attributions 𝐆an👍ciennes ou récentes');

K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen 2000, vol. I, p. 289, vol. II, p. 913, cat. no. A1277 (as not by Pieter Brueghel th꧋e Younger).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Circle of Pieter Brueghel he Elder. Village Kermesse. This painting is on a panel, which has a complex old cradle, dating probably from early in the last century. Double cradle bars support the two main joints, with further double supports behind the crack near the top and behind the other main crack lower down. A slight glimmering of older varnish can be seen under ultra violet light in places, but many of the darks in the background, with various other delicate areas, have been vulnerable to frequent restoration, as has the thin liquidly painted ground between the figures which is characteristically fragile, and the quite extensive restoration visible under UV seems to reflect the frequent change of ownership in the last century. Glimpses of the vivid original can be caught for instance in the dancing figure in yellow on the left, the occasional white coifs of the women, or a face at the window, or under a dark cap on the left, with other tantalising moments scattered across the painting are poignant if rare. The lighter an apron or a jacket the greater chance it has had of remaining intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"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."

Until very recently this painting was considered a late work by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and was widely published as such through the 20^th century. The respected scholar on sixteenth-century Netherlandish painting Max J. Friedländer was perhaps the most eminent mind to publish it as such and proposed a dating of circa 1565. Glück however suggested that the painting was more likely to be the work of Brueghel the Younger on the basis of comparison with a signed kermesse of 1626 formerly in the Wittouch collection in Brussels. Recent dendrochronological analysis of the oak panel support has however confirmed a likely date of execution in the 1570s, placing it firmly in the following of the elder Bruegel. Indeed, stylistically it is rooted in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s late style and has far more in common with the father than the son.

Friedländer reproduced the painting as it appeared following the removal of overpaint in 1930 (fig. 1). The illustration shows the extent of the damage to the background and foreground. The principal paint loss is predominantly limited to the ground behind the figures to the left and immediately in front of them to the right. The figures themselves, though worn in parts, seem to have largely escaped the problem that caused these losses. We can thus appreciate the very fine nature of the draughtsmanship of the figures, their gesture, and the fine detail of the execution of certain faces. They are very comparable to those that populate the late works of Bruegel, especially those of The Peasant Dance in Vienna.¹ The artist🔴 responsible for this painting clearly had a close working knowledge of the master’s work𝕴 and continued to work in that style after Bruegel’s death. As such, it is one of surprisingly few works in this manner, painted in the immediate aftermath of Bruegel’s death, that have survived.

Dendrochronological analysis of the three horizontal planks of eastern Baltic oak that make up the support was carried out in the autumn of 2016. The latest ring present in the lower plank is sapwood and i𝄹s datable to 1566. The last rings of the upper two planks are heartwood and are datable to 1562 and 1563. Adding the standard minimum eight years of expected sapwood growth to the last registered ring of heartwood in the upper two planks suggests a usaﷺge date of 1571 or after.

Friedländer and Michel drew attention to a reduced copy formerly in the Mrs Dr Salomomsohn collection, Berlin, and later in the Delaroff Gallery in St Petersburg, which depicts only the tavern door on the right of the composition.² Michel also mentions a copy formerly with Cassirer i𝄹n Berlin. 

1. Friedländer 1976, reproduced plate 55.

2. See respectively M. J. Friedländer, Pieter Bruegel, Berlin 1921, p. 111 and Michel 1931, p. 80.