Cows’ backsides are clue to masterpiece lost in gallery drawer
Painting rediscovered on two planks in Birmingham
IT is the masterpiece that lay for decades forgotten in a drawer – until one expert scrutinised two cows’ backsides tucked away in the landscape.
He immediately thought the painting – buried away in the bowels of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery – was the work of Bruegel the Elder.
The 16th century Dutch Rennaissance artist specialised in heifers’ backsides. There was, say art historians, no one better at painting cows’ rear ends.
In fact, the expert was not entirely correct. The piece, auction house Sotheby’s has confirmed, is by Bruegel’s son, Brueghel – he added an “h” to his name – the Younger. He, too, excelled when it came to capturing people and animals in miniature.
Museum staff can be forgiven for not realising the painting’s true worth. The panel was filthy, had been split in two and painted over.
But what was left of the original scene – a rural image of villagers picking apples – intrigued Dr Brendor
Grosvenor, art historian and presenter of BBC series Britain’s Lost Masterpieces.
Tests revealed the panels upon which the picture was painted dated back to the 1500s, but it was the cows’ rears that really excited Dr Grosvenor.
He said: “Now, if there is one artist in particular who loved the back end of a cow, it is Bruegel the Elder. The ultimate test for Bruegel is the back end of a cow.”
When the overpaint was stripped away by restoration expert Simon Gillespie, Dr Grosvenor’s hunch was proved to be near spot on.
The figures were definitely painted at Brugel the Elder’s studio, but by his son. The background is the work of another famed Flemish artist, Joos de Momper.
Dr Grosvenor added: “We have never had anything quite exciting as this.
“I must confess to being a little disappointed they are not by Bruegel the Elder, but it’s come a long way from two planks in a drawer in Birmingham.”
Mr Gillespie said: “It looked pretty shoddy when it arrived in two bags.
“You really couldn’t tell what was going on.
“But in the corner there was a tiny, detailed figure and I thought ‘Hello, this is good quality’.
“Much of it had been over-painted, probably by someone who thought they’d paint over the crack between the two panels. That happens often, but it’s pretty audacious to think you could do a better job than Bruegel.”
Andrew Fletcher, head of the Old
Masters department at Sotheby’s, said: “It is so lovely to have brought a painting like this, by two of Flanders’ leading painters, back into the light.”
The restored painting has now been put on public display at Birmingham Museum
& Art Gallery.
Another Birmingham painting featured in the BBC programme was first thought to be by renowned landscape artist Thomas Gainsborough.
But after the picture was restored, experts decided it was more likely to be by one of Gainsborough’s followers.
PIETER Bruegel the Elder, above, was the first artist to capture snowfall in an oil painting.
He died aged only 45 when his sons Pieter the Younger and Jan the Elder were both under five. Both became very successful artists.
Pieter inherited the family business and specialised in portraits of peasants and landscapes.
His work has been exhibited across the world, included the State Hermitage Museum, in St Petersburg, Russia, and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
Last year, Christie’s sold one of Brueghel’s paintings, The Netherlandish Proverbs, for a staggering £6,308,750 - twice the estimated price.