On 18 September 2026, Koller in Zurich will bring one of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s stronger independent village scenes back to auction. The panel was estimated at £1–1.5 million at Sotheby’s in 2022 and sold at a hammer price of £950,000. Four years later, Koller has placed the estimate at CHF 600,000–900,000. It is precisely this return to the market that makes the lot particularly interesting.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1637/38) is hardly a rare name on the auction market. His workshop produced a substantial number of paintings, and many of his best-known compositions survive in multiple versions.
The painting offered by Koller on 18 September as lot 3018 is Das Wirtshaus zum Schwan (The Swan Inn). Dating from around 1626, the 44 × 62.8 cm panel is signed P. BREVGHEL at lower right and bears on the reverse both the mark of the Antwerp panel maker Michiel Vrient and Antwerp brand marks. Koller has given it an estimate of CHF 600,000–900,000, approximately €640,000–960,000 ($750,000–1.12 million).[1]
A Brueghel in which the figures take over the picture
In many of Brueghel’s panoramic fairs, winter landscapes and village scenes, the human figure becomes part of a much larger world. Here, almost the opposite happens. The street may recede deep into the village, but in the foreground the drinkers quite literally occupy our space.
On the left, fresh beer is passed through the dark window of the inn. Around the table, hands, glances and jugs point in every direction. The man in the red cap extends his arm towards the right; opposite him, the woman in the straw hat almost mirrors the same gesture. Between them sit drinkers who seem barely aware of what is happening around them.
Brueghel then builds the composition from a succession of ever smaller incidents. Further back, a child throws its arms into the air. A pig appears to be resisting those trying to control it. Beyond them, arguments and a scuffle break out. Further into the distance, the figures gradually dissolve into the village street.
It is precisely this transition from large to small that gives the painting its rhythm. The eye is first caught by the theatrical foreground before being drawn into the village beyond. It also helps explain why this composition looks so different from many of Brueghel’s more densely populated but smaller-scale village scenes. In other versions of the composition, a wooden sign bearing the words In de swaen appears on the inn. The title therefore refers to the compositional group to which the painting belongs.[1][5]
Not simply a copy after his father
This inn scene is regarded as an independent invention by Pieter Brueghel the Younger rather than a repetition of a known painting by his father. Klaus Ertz included the panel in his catalogue raisonné as no. E1182 and described its painterly quality in exceptionally favourable terms. According to the literature, eight versions of the composition are regarded as autograph. The earliest dated example is from 1625, while dated versions are known through 1632.[2][3][5]
CHF 600,000–900,000 versus a £950,000 hammer price in 2022
The earlier provenance is relatively straightforward. The painting was in the collection of Jacques Hynderick de Ghelcke around 1905 and subsequently passed by descent through an aristocratic collection. On 9 March 1983, it appeared at Sotheby’s London, where it sold for £105,000. It returned to Sotheby’s in 2022, this time as one of the Flemish paintings in the Old Masters Evening Auction. It was estimated at £1–1.5 million, but the hammer fell at £950,000, below the low estimate. The published price including buyer’s premium was £1,184,500.[2][3][4]
After the Sotheby’s sale, Koller lists only a non-European collection. The provenance therefore reveals little about precisely what happened to the painting during the four years between its sale in London and its forthcoming appearance in Zurich. That in itself makes its rapid return interesting. In auction-market terms, the work is certainly not fresh to market: its last public sale took place only in 2022 and therefore remains a highly relevant price reference. This may also help explain why Koller has now chosen a considerably more cautious estimate.
Even the upper end of Koller’s current estimate, CHF 900,000, lies below the previous hammer price. The 2022 sale had already fallen somewhat short of expectations at the time. The present estimate once again creates the sense that the market itself is being given room to establish the price, rather than simply being asked to reproduce the previous result.
The lesson of the Allegory of Autumn
On 27 March, the same auction house sold Pieter Brueghel’s signed and dated 1622 Allegorie des Herbstes (Allegory of Autumn). The estimate was CHF 300,000–500,000, approximately €320,000–530,000 ($370,000–620,000). The final price was CHF 1,807,000 including buyer’s premium, around €1.93 million ($2.25 million).[6]
The Autumn possessed something that the Swan Inn emphatically does not: freshness to the market. The painting had probably not appeared at public auction since 1935 and had remained with the same Swiss family for four generations. It was also dated 1622, probably once formed part of a four-part series of the seasons, and was accompanied by recent technical research. That combination of long provenance, firm dating, technical documentation and an absence of recent market references can generate intense competition between bidders.
Yet the estimate appears to leave room
The success of the Autumn should therefore not simply be projected onto the forthcoming sale. On 1 July 2026, Sotheby’s in London offered the much larger and more prestigious Village Scene with Peasants Carousing and Dancing around a Maypole with an estimate of £2.5–3.5 million. It sold at a hammer price of £2.4 million: a strong result in absolute terms, but again just below the low estimate.[7]
The market for Pieter Brueghel the Younger is selective. Freshness to market, provenance, quality, subject, composition and, above all, the relationship between the asking level and buyers’ expectations remain decisive. That is precisely why Koller’s estimate of CHF 600,000–900,000 is more interesting than another CHF 1–1.5 million valuation would have been.
We expect the eventual hammer price could exceed the upper estimate. A return towards the £950,000 hammer price achieved at Sotheby’s in 2022 would not surprise us. In that sense, a painting the market already knows quite well has unexpectedly been given an interesting position once again.
Do you have a particular interest in this artist or in this subject?
Do you follow this artist, or have you come across a work you would like to know more about? We regularly research works appearing on the market and are always happy to exchange views on quality, provenance, art-historical context and previous auction results. You can contact us directly via info@antonello.art.
Notes and sources
[1] Koller Auctions, A218 Gemälde Alter Meister, Zurich, 18 September 2026, lot 3018, Pieter Brueghel d. J., Das Wirtshaus zum Schwan. Um 1626.
[2] Sotheby’s, Old Masters Evening Auction, London, 6 July 2022, lot 9, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Peasants feasting and merrymaking in a village street.
[3] Antiques Trade Gazette, 27 August 2022, “Brueghel the Younger makes merry among just 20 lots”.
[4] Sotheby’s, “Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the Younger as Moralist”, 17 October 2022. Sotheby’s gives a realised price of £1,184,500 including buyer’s premium for the same lot.
[5] Klaus Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564–1637/38). Die Gemälde mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen 1988/2000, vol. II, p. 834, 845–46, nos. E1179–E1188, in particular E1182.
[6] Koller Auctions, A216 Gemälde Alter Meister, Zurich, 27 March 2026, lot 3027, Pieter Brueghel d. J., Allegorie des Herbstes. 1622. Estimate CHF 300,000–500,000; Koller published a final price of CHF 1,807,000 including buyer’s premium.
[7] Sotheby’s, Old Master & 19th Century Paintings and Sculpture Evening Auction, London, 1 July 2026, lot 15, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Village Scene with Peasants Carousing and Dancing around a Maypole. Estimate £2.5–3.5 million.
