The work is the largest ever attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger, a major Flemish artist of the 16th and 17th centuries. The bids could reach 800,000 euros according to the organizers.
The painting had been sleeping for years behind a door. “The Village Lawyer”, a rediscovered painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, is this Tuesday auctioned in Paris by the Drouot house. The sale should be closed on an amount between 600,000 and 800,000 euros, reports CNN.
It was during an estimate of a house in the north of France that Malo de Lussac, auctioneer at Daguerre Val de Loire, came across the canvas. She quickly turns out to be the tallest of the artist, measuring 112 centimeters by 184, while she was hitherto unknown in the art world.
A work painted between 1615 and 1617
The owner family, who had owned the work since the beginning of the 20th century and who prefer to remain anonymous, indeed thought that it was a fake. “It was a very good surprise for me,” Malo de Lussac told Reuters news agency.
“We were able to give them back that authenticity by telling them, ‘In fact, your work of art is a real one.'”
The painting is said to have been painted between 1615 and 1617 according to the experts who examined it. Pieter Brueghel, known as “the Younger” and who lived from 1564 to 1636, is the namesake of his father nicknamed “the Elder”, who lived from 1525 to 1569. He copied many of his father’s works but the canvas auctioned on Tuesday is inspired by the popular theme of the village lawyer.