Dorf an einem Fluss mit Fähre

Dorf an einem Fluss mit Fähre — Village on a River with Ferry — painted in 1624 on copper and now at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, is a late masterwork by Jan Brueghel the Elder, painted just a year before his death in the plague of 1625. The subject combines two of his great specialties: the animated village scene and the river crossing with boats. The Museum Mayer van den Bergh is practically the ideal home for this work: Fritz Mayer van den Bergh, who assembled the collection in the late nineteenth century, prioritised Flemish and Antwerp painting of precisely the period Brueghel exemplifies. The 1624 date shows Brueghel's touch still crisp and precise despite his age, the miniaturist control undiminished.

Oil on copper; the composition is a horizontal panorama combining the village on the bank with the river in the foreground and the ferry crossing as its active centre. The late Brueghel shows fully mature control of spatial recession, atmosphere, and figure placement, with the copper support still delivering the tonal richness his technique required.