Dated 1610, this exceptionally well-preserved work is the earliest version of one of the rarest and most dynamic of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s subjects: The Country Brawl, known in French asLa Rixe (estimate:£700,000-1 million).  This painting comes to the market for the first time since 1928 when it was acquired by Baron Evence III Coppée (1882-1945) of Brussels, having since passed by descent to the present owner. Described by Dr. Klaus Ertz as ‘une merveilleuse version de 1610’, he places it within his catalogue raisonné at the head of ten autograph versions of the composition, four of which are in museums: Montpellier, Musée Fabre; Prague, Národní galerie, Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie; and Philadelphia, Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection. Only eight of these works are dated and only five are signed and dated. All of the dated versions were painted in the same four-year period, 1619-1622, with the exception of the present work. The form of the signature, using the spelling ‘BRVEGHEL’, is unique amongst the various versions, the other signed ones using the spelling ‘BREVGHEL’, which seems to have been adopted by Pieter Brueghel the Younger only after circa 1616. The date of 1610 gives the present work a special status within the context of the known versions of this subject. Executed during this earlier period of Brueghel’s activity, the Coppée picture is distinguished by its highly elaborate under-drawing (visible in infrared refectography), its extraordinary attention to detail and the high quality of its execution. These factors combine to make this not only the earliest, but also the finest of all the known versions of this extraordinarily powerful composition.

Long believed by many scholars to be a work in whole or in part by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Good Shepherd is one of the rarest subjects in the oeuvre of his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger (estimate: £800,000-1.2 million). No drawn or painted prototype for the composition by the Elder exists, suggesting that this is an original invention by Pieter the Younger, doubtless conceived in relation to The Bad Shepherd, which exists in a unique version by Pieter the Younger. Together the two compositions can be considered one of the personal masterpieces of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s art; their outstanding compositional and philosophical excellence eloquently accounts for the desire of so many past experts to see in them the authorship of the artist’s illustrious father.The Good Shepherd exists in only three versions, making it a great rarity in a body of work which often comprises prolific repetition of ‘iconic’ compositions. Of the two other versions of The Good Shepherd, one work, signed and dated 1616, is in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels; the other, restituted to the heirs of Ernst and Gisella Pollack of Vienna in 2001, is now in a private collection.

Pieter Brueghel II's The Wedding Dance , up for sale, (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000) can be viewed as a record of daily peasant life in the 16th-century Netherlands, or as a genre scene rife with allegorical and symbolic meaning, with overtones warning against drinking, over-indulgence, and lust. The work depicts a bustling party in which a large group celebrates a newly married couple; whirling dancers occupy the foreground as the bride sits at the center with a crown atop her head, denoting her special status as “Queen for the day.” She watches as those surrounding her place pewter coins on a plate in front of her, while eager onlookers greedily survey the offerings.

The Drunkard pushed into the Pigsty (estimate: $500,000-700,000) is similarly meant to convey a moralizing message in its portrayal of a Flemish proverb. The combination of drunkenness, gluttony, and lust is referred to in the iconography of the work, as the pig has long been connected with excess. Despite the didactic meaning of the work, The Drunkard pushed into the Pigsty reflects Brueghel’s unique ability to project a sympathetic and humorous attitude toward human weakness and folly. This picture is one of only two extant autograph versions and the only one remaining in private hands.