Attributed to Jan Brueghel the Younger

The Mauritshuis catalogues a small Paradise on copper with a careful word attached: possibly by Jan Brueghel the Younger. This entry exists for that word. It stands for a judgement, that the hand is probably his, and for the doubt that comes with it.

The doubt comes with the family business. Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Antwerp painter famous for paradise landscapes crowded with animals, died in 1625, and his son took over the busy workshop. For decades he kept his father's designs in use, repeating favourite compositions on small copper plates, with assistants at work beside him. Pictures from that studio can be very close to one another, and scholars still disagree over which are by the son himself and which by his helpers.

About 340 paintings are now attributed to Jan the Younger. The Mauritshuis picture is dated 1630, five years into his time as head of the workshop.