The Momper family comprised several generations of artists based in Antwerp. Joos de Momper, the Younger, is now considered to be the most gifted of the family and enjoyed a prosperous career as a landscape artist who specialized in scenic views such as these. The representation of the different seasons originated in Medieval manuscript illumination. However, by this point in the 17th century, any lingering moralization associated with the conventional cycle of the seasons and man’s industriousness through the natural bounty provided by God, was already competing with the aesthetic delight that viewers experienced when enjoying the naturalism of Momper’s picturesque scenery. Momper’s landscapes, which found a ready clientele throughout his career, are typically thought of as a bridge between the stylization of his predecessor in the genre, Joachim Patinir (c. 1480-1524), and the greater realism associated with Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569). In fact, Joos worked closely with Pieter Bruegel’s son, Jan Bruegel, who often supplied the figures for expansive landscapes such as these. Such collaboration between artists with niche specializations was common in 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting.

Joos de Momper was extremely prolific, producing hundreds of landscape paintings, many of which are slight variations of one another. Like most artists of the Baroque period, studies done from nature were then integrated into imaginary compositions invented in the studio. In the case of Joos, he excelled at the depiction of large expanses of space, captured from an elevated point of view that enabled him to supply both detailed vignettes of human activity, as well as a sublime sense of air and light in the distant background. Although neither of these paintings are signed (he frequently did not sign his paintings), one can reasonably argue for the attribution to Joos, based on the quality of the execution and the paintings’ provenance. Katherine Deere Butterworth was a great patron of the arts (she was the granddaughter of John Deere, for whom the multinational corporation is named). Butterworth’s collection is preserved in a house museum supported by a trust that Katherine Butterworth established in 1951.