1564 – Antwerp – 1635



The work of this landscape painter stands at the threshold between Mannerism and painting from nature. In his early years, Joos de Momper was inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525 – 1569) before becoming familiar with the Venetian palette of the late work of Tintoretto (1518 – 1594). At the end of the 1590s, he travelled to Italy and Switzerland. His Alpine memories play a major role in his work. Just like a great number of his contemporaries, he often devoted himself to painting the four seasons.

Joos de Momper drew inspiration from reality to paint fantastic landscapes. The traditional three-tiered colour perspective – brown-red in the foreground, grey-green in the middle ground, and pale blue in the background - allowed him to use the atmosphere and the clouds to create the illusion of space. His southern-inspired landscapes are similar to those by Adam Elsheimer (1578 – 1610) and Paul Bril (1553/1554 – 1626). He sometimes worked with his contemporaries, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 – 1625) and Jan the Younger (1601 – 1678), to populate his landscapes. The special technique he used to paint his rock formations established him as a pioneer of the genre.