Brueghel's "Winter River Landscape with Bird Trap" is one of the most popular winter depictions of the 17th century, paved the way for its own pictorial genre, served as a model for an entire subsequent generation of artists and is an integral part of the collective pictorial memory.

It is believed that the famous composition was based on the prototypes by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

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from 1565, which now hangs in the Musée Beaux Arts in Brussels.

Above all through the continuous implementation of this motif by his son, Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

J., it became very popular: Today, 127 bird trap images are associated with it, 45 of which are considered independent and were created between 1601 and 1626.

In Koller's spring auction with old art there is now a market-fresh version of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, created around 1601.

J. “Winter river landscape with bird trap”, which is close to the version created in Vienna in the same year both stylistically and qualitatively.

The oil painting, measuring 37 by 56 centimetres, has been in a Luxembourg private collection for several generations and, with an expected price of CHF 800,000 to 1.2 million, is the top lot of the offer that will be auctioned in Zurich on April 1st.

Pieter's brother Jan Brueghel the Elder

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created a small “harbour scene with fish market” on copper in 1605, which was only recently rediscovered in the estate appraisal of a Swiss private collection and impresses with its exquisite colors (estimate 300,000 to 400,000 francs).

David Teniers the Elder

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Balthasar van der Ast painted a beautiful still life of flowers on a 30 by 26 centimeter wooden panel, it is said to bring in 80,000 to 120,000 francs.

Two water landscapes by Jan van Goyen are up for auction: "River Landscape with Ferry" was created in 1641 (70,000/100,000), "The Beach of Egmond aan Zee" three years later (60,000/80,000).

The offer from the 19th century, which will also be auctioned off on April 1, is headed by an impressive painting of the "Swiss Alpine landscape with the Jungfrau": Johann Wilhelm Schirmer's 1839 work hung on permanent loan in the Düsseldorf Art Museum and is estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 taxed in Franconia.

Hans Thoma also pays homage to the mountain in his painting "Peasant family with a view of the north side of the Wengen-Jungfrau" from 1916 (12,000/18,000).

From Carl Spitzweg comes the interesting early work "Three Gentlemen in a Tavern" from 1840/45 - from a period in which he was influenced by Dutch painting of the Golden Age (15,000/20,000).

Among the 100 lots of old drawings, Thomas Gainsborough's wash pencil work, believed to have been made in the early 1980s, stands out: the sheet 'Peasants Returning from the Market' is related to the Gainsborough oil painting of the same name, which was once in his possession of Royal Hollway College and now preserved in a private collection (30,000/40,000).