Stormy Summer Landscape Over The Harvest. Workshop Jacques Fouquieres Antwerp 1585 - Paris 1659

Stormy summer landscape over the harvest. Workshop of Jacques FOUQUIERES (Antwerp 1585 - Paris 1659). Jacques Fouquières was born in the 1580s in Antwerp, Belgium. He was trained in Antwerp by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Joos de Momper. He became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1614. In 1616-1619 he worked in Heidelberg, and in 1620 went to Italy. He came to France around 1621 to be responsible for representing the cities of France for the Grande Galerie du Louvre. In this context he undertakes a trip to Provence between 1627 and 1628. He is known to have strained relations with Nicolas Poussin. His pupils were the painters Philippe de Champaigne, Matthieu van Plattenberg, François Bellin and Étienne Rendu. He was naturalized French and ennobled. The theme of the harvest is particularly present in Flemish art from the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was one of the first major contributors to this theme. We are in the month of August, the urgency of the harvest is thwarted by the storm under the heat of the summer. A stormy episode has just ended as evidenced by the rainbow at the top left of the table. The peasants are activated in a very laborious mode in the right part of the work. In contrast, villagers on the right are entertained near a tavern, drink, play and seem very indifferent to the work of the peasants. A line of flight separates them, it leads to the sea. An old attribution to David TENIERS (cartouche on the gilded wood frame) seems questionable, unless it is about a work of youth of the latter.