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In front of an idyllic forest landscape, Diana, seated in the middle, and her followers have just returned from hunting. In the soft evening light, the graceful, half-dressed nymphs occupy themselves with the prey of their successful stalk.
In his expert opinion, Dr. Klaus Ertz underlines the popular collaboration of Jan Brueghel the Younger with Hendrik van Balen as the "parade couple", which reached a particular climax during the period in which the present work was painted: "In addition to the finely painted landscape and the precisely detailed dead animals in the foreground, the origin of the painting around 1630 is supported by Jan Brueghel the Younger. (shortly after taking over his father's studio, Jan the Younger is, in his attention to detail, the upholder of his father's legacy), above all the contribution of the figure painter Hendrick van Balen, whose figures from the 1620s onwards are reminiscent of the voluminous ones of Peter Paul Rubens, his great model".
The mythological theme of Diana with her nymphs was a favoured source for both artists and was captured several times by them in various compositions (for example, Diana's Return from the Hunt in the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, inv. no. MR 1003). Jan Brueghel the Elder already preferred to work with Hendrik van Balen on paintings of the same subject, and one of their famous works may have served as the source of inspiration for the present picture ("Diana und ihre Nymphen nach der Jagd", 1620-25, oil on panel, 55.8 x 94.1 cm. Cf. expert opinion Dr. Klaus Ertz; Klaus Ertz/Christa Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel d.Ä. Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, vol. II, cat.-no. 351).