[5] He gradually was able to break away from his father's style by developing a broader, more painterly, and less structured manner of painting.

At the time his friend and fellow Antwerp artist Anthony van Dyck was also active in Genoa.

[10] Jan learned that his father had died on 13 January 1625 from cholera only after his return to Northern Italy in Turin.

Wanting to return to Antwerp immediately, he had to delay his departure for 16 days due to a severe fever.

[10] Like his father and uncle, he would also reinterpret the genre and landscape paintings of his grandfather Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

An example is the Fight between Peasants (Dorotheum Vienna 30 April 2019, lot 383), which goes back to a now lost painting of his grandfather, which was likely in the collection of his father and of which a print exists.

[9] He gradually was able to break away from his father's style by developing a broader, more painterly, and less structured manner of painting.

[9] His best works are his wide landscapes, which he produced on his own or in collaboration with other painters such as Hendrick van Balen the Elder and Joos de Momper.

[9] Among his veduta paintings can be counted a View of the palace of Brussels with Archdukes Albert and Isabella (c. 1627, Museo del Prado) executed in collaboration with Sebastiaen Vrancx.

[9] His father had created the new still life category of garland paintings, a special type of still life developed in Antwerp along with other artists such as Hendrick van Balen, Frans Francken the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens and Daniel Seghers.

This genre was initially inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally.

[15] Like his father, Jan the Elder produced various sets of allegorical paintings, in particular on the themes of the Five senses, the Four Elements.

An example is the Allegory of abundance (c. 1624, Museo del Prado'') in which fertility is represented by a six-breasted figure at the centre of the composition.

From the 1640s he created complex allegories dealing with subjects such as the horrors of war and the benefits of commerce, the arts and science.

In these mature works Jan Brueghel the Younger distanced himself from his father's models to create his own visual language, reflecting the new art and mood of his time.

[18] Jan Breughel the Elder had contributed to the development of the genre of the 'monkey scene', also called 'singerie' (a word, which in French means a 'comical grimace, behaviour or trick').

[20] Monkeys appear in medieval cathedral sculpture as symbols of evil, while in Renaissance art they were a personification of man.

[22] Painters could use the figure of the monkey to express moral judgement and dubious traits of human behaviour.

The version in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem shows monkeys negotiating, weighing bulbs, counting money and handling administrative tasks.