Travellors + hermits in mountain-landscape

This 1618 landscape with travellers and hermits reflects Joos de Momper's mature style, when his compositions became increasingly atmospheric and loosely painted. The staffage figures were often added by collaborators such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, a common practice in Antwerp's collaborative workshop culture. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays sweeping panoramic landscapes with warm tonality, layered atmospheric recession through blue-green-brown distances, theatrical rock formations and mountain passes, staffage figures typically painted by other artists.

The broadly handled brushwork creates a sense of atmosphere and movement, with the mountain forms dissolving into misty distance through tonal gradations of blue and grey.