London, Brod Gallery, Jan Brueghel the Elder, June-July 1979, no. 6
Essen, Villa Hügel, August-November 1997; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, December 1997-April 1998, Breughel-Brueghel, no. 30; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, May-July 1998, Breughel-Brueghel, no. 31
On loan to the National Gallery, London, from February 2011 – December 2023.

A Sea Storm is an early work by one of the most celebrated and successful artists of his day.  In this finely preserved painting on copper, Jan Brueghel the Elder has depicted a rocky coastline, whipped by a violent storm, with fierce winds, crashing waves and black clouds looming overhead.  In the foreground, a boat has struck the rocks and the sailors, fearful for their lives, cling to the broken mast and wrecked hull of the boat: others, who have been thrown overboard, pull themselves from the water and clamber up the rocks.  Two men and a priest ride the waves in a small skiff in an attempt to rescue the shipwrecked sailors.  On the right, atop a craggy outcrop, a castaway kneels and clasps his hands in prayer, imploring the almighty to deliver him safely.  At sea, a warship pitches in the heavy seas, while her crew struggles to bring down the sails.  Close by, another boat, its mast broken, is adrift and at the mercy of the tempest.  In the middle distance, a dramatic rock formation, surmounted by a castle, rises up steeply from the sea.  On the horizon, the sky has cleared and sunlight shines on a distant island and fortified promontory. 

In this small marine painting, taken from a high viewpoint, with a panoramic field of vision, Brueghel has captured the full fury of a storm at sea.  The pointed bows of the wrecked boat lead one into to the centre of the composition, where two ships, with tilting masts and flapping sails, convey a sense of the motion of the waves.  The eye travels on, across the agitated surface of the water towards a light shining in the blue distance and the calm after the storm. Using paint, applied in thin layers, the artist has exploited the reflective quality of the copper, creating a luminous range of blues and greens in the sea and sky.  The predominantly dark foreground is enlivened by white highlights, applied with tiny brushstrokes, which articulate the swirling waves, and by brilliant accents of red and blue in the clothing of the little figures, struggling against the forces of nature. 

Jan Brueghel the Elder painted A Sea Storm while on an artistic pilgrimage to Italy, similar to that made by his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30-1569), some thirty years before.  After a sojourn in Naples, the young artist arrived in Rome, probably in 1592.  There, he came into contact with artists and a small circle of distinguished patrons who were to have a marked influence on his future development and career.  Brueghel soon became acquainted with Paul Bril (1554-1626), a Flemish painter who had been living in Rome since 1582.  Bril’s early commissions in Italy, executed with his brother, Matthijs Bril (1550-1583), were mostly for frescoes, but early in the 1590s he began producing exquisite, small landscapes and seascapes on copper.  In 1593, Bril and Brueghel collaborated on a painting on copper and, in the following years, the close affinity between their work suggests a lasting mutual influence.  Another fruitful collaboration began around 1595 with the German artist, Johann Rottenhammer (1564-1625), who specialised in works on copper and had spent an extended period of time in Venice. 

Among the collectors who enthusiastically embraced the young Fleming was Cardinal Ascanio Colonna, for whom Brueghel painted the present work as well as eleven others, which are recorded in the Colonna inventory of 1714.  In Rome, Brueghel also made the acquaintance of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who was to become his most important patron and lifelong friend.  This was a highly productive period for the young artist and the numerous mentions of paintings by Brueghel in the inventories of Roman families attest to his immediate success with contemporary connoisseurs.  In the circle of Borromeo, the taste for the work of Jan Brueghel was soon reflected in the collection of Benedetto Giustiniani which, in 1601, included six paintings by “Brugo”.  All were on copper, with black ebony frames, which set off their colours and the large number of figures crowded into a small space[i].  Francesco Maria del Monte was also closely associated with Borromeo and the 1627 inventory of his palazzo describes a number of paintings attributed to Jan Brueghel, hanging in the “Galleria piccola” and in the rooms beyond with other northern landscapes, seascapes and small format “narrative paintings in various styles”[ii].

Many of the qualities which characterise Flemish landscapes and, in particular, the work of Jan Brueghel, such as the meticulous technique, glowing colours and accurate depiction of naturalistic detail, were particularly admired by Italian connoisseurs.  This appreciation is well expressed in the words of Giulio Mancini, who wrote of one of Jan’s pictures: “He painted exceedingly well on a very small scale and in particular, for an art-loving gentleman, he created a landscape depicting the eruption of Mount Etna, with towns, villages and crowds of people of various nationalities; although the largest figures were no bigger than an ant, yet they represented and expressed everything he wished to express.  What is more, in them he captured those glints of light which, to my way of thinking, were extremely skilful and attractive”[iii].  Such effects were further enhanced by Brueghel’s frequent choice of copper, a  support that was ideally suited to his delicate, miniaturist technique and gave an added brilliance to his colours. 

This painting is one of a small group of early marine subjects painted while Jan Brueghel the Elder was in Rome and Milan.  It is closely related to his Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, dated 1595, which he painted for Federico Borromeo[iv], and an autograph version of the same subject, in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid[v].  All three pictures are on copper, and share a high viewpoint as well as a predominantly blue-green colouring.  Similarities can also be noted with his Coastal Landscape with the Sacrifice of Jonah, of 1595, in the Girardet collection in Kettwig[vi] and an undated Jonah disgorged by the Whale in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich[vii], depicting a rough sea but without shipping.  These comparisons raise questions as to the dating of the present work which, in Klaus Ertz’s opinion, can be plausibly assigned to the years 1595-96, due to its stylistic affinities with the pictures in Milan and Madrid.  However, others have argued convincingly that, as A Sea Storm was painted for Ascanio Colonna[viii], it probably predates the latter two and was executed in Rome in 1594, or in the first half of 1595, before Brueghel’s departure from Rome later that year.  Borromeo was appointed Archbishop of Milan in June 1595 and took up residence there in August: Brueghel subsequently joined him, probably in October 1595, becoming a member of the Cardinal’s household.  Similarly, the Girardet collection’s Coastal Landscape with the Sacrifice of Jonah, of 1595, which appears in the Barberini  inventory of 1644, was also probably painted before Brueghel left the Eternal City. 

Jan Brueghel’s most likely source of inspiration for his marine storm scenes has long been thought to be the unsigned Storm at Sea in Vienna, traditionally attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder[ix], or his father’s View of the Bay of Naples, in the Doria Pamphilj, in Rome[x].  He was also almost certainly aware of the popular engravings of ships made by Frans Huys (1522-1562) and others after designs by his father.  Other prototypes that may have influenced Brueghel are to be found in the works of the brothers Bril.  In particular, there are parallels with the composition of Paul Bril’s fresco of The Sacrifice of Jonah, in the Scala Santa in the Vatican, for which a drawing by Bril exists in the British Museum that was later engraved in reverse by Justus Sadler (1583-1620)[xi].  The similarities between Brueghel’s Sea Storm and Bril’s fresco lends further support to a slightly earlier dating for the present painting, before the artist left Rome. 

Although A Sea Storm is the only picture in this group of early marines that does not illustrate a biblical narrative, it may well have been intended to convey a symbolic meaning. On one level, it could be interpreted as an allegory of the uncertainty of human life, symbolised by the ship, broken on the rocks, or on another, it could contain a religious message that directs the believer to find salvation through faith in god.  Brueghel chose to address just such a theme in his aforementioned paintings of Christ in the storm on the Sea of Galilee, which illustrate a parable in the Gospels.  According to the biblical text, Christ and his disciples were overtaken by a storm while they were sailing on the Sea of Galilee.  Christ was asleep when the storm broke, but his fearful disciples roused him.  To their amazement Jesus calmed the storm and chided them for their lack of faith.  Similarly, in the story of Jonah and the whale, which Brueghel addressed in his painting of 1595, Jonah is cast overboard in a storm and swallowed by a whale.  While in its belly, he prays to God and repents of his sins and three days later he is disgorged.  An interpretation of this kind would have been consistent with Brueghel’s own religious beliefs as a devout Catholic, as well as of those of his patron. 

BIOGRAPHY

Jan Brueghel was born in Brussels in 1568, the second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Maeycken Coecke van Aelst.  His father died shortly after his brith and it is said that his earliest artistic training was with his maternal grandmother, Mayken Verhulst (c. 1545-1578), a miniaturist and watercolour painter.  According to the biographer and art theorist, Karel van Mander, he was taught to paint in oils by Pieter Gotekindt in Antwerp.  Brueghel traveled to Italy between 1589 and 1596 and, in Rome, met Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who became his most important patron, with whom he conducted an extensive correspondence for the rest of his life.  Upon his return to Antwerp, he joined the St. Luke’s Guild and became dean in 1601.  He married Isabella de Jode in 1599 and, in 1601, their first son, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) was born.  He wife died suddenly in 1603, perhaps at the birth of their daughter, Paschasia.  In 1604, he travelled to Prague, returning to Antwerp later that year.  The following year he married Catharina van Marienberghe who bore him eight children.  In 1606, he was in Nuremburg and the same year he was appointed court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in Brussels.  Around 1613, he visited Holland on a diplomatic mission in the company of Rubens (1577-1640) and Hendrick van Balen I (1575-1632).  In 1625, Jan Brueghel died from cholera during an epidemic which also claimed the lives of three of his children. 

Jan Brueghel the Elder is famous for his small format history paintings, including religious, mythological and allegorical subjects.  He also painted still lifes of flowers, landscapes, seascapes, hunting pieces, battles and scenes of hell and the underworld.  His works were highly prized and brought him great wealth.  He taught his son, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Daniel Seghers: his grandsons included Jan van Kessel and David Teniers III.  He collaborated often with other artists including Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick van Balen, Hendrick de Clerck , Joos de Momper the Younger, Sebastiaen Vrancx and Hendrick van Steenwijck the Younger.