Jan Miense Molenaer

A. Kay, London/Glasgow, before 1939 (as by Judith Leyster);
With Wildenstein, New York, by 1951;
With S. Nijstad, The Hague, by 1952;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 3 May 1974, lot 111. 

Delft, IVe Oude Kunst- en Antiekbeurs, 27 August - 17 September 1952 (exhibited with S. Nijstad). 

A. Kay, Treasure trove in art, Edinburgh 1939, reproduced opposite p. 33, as J. Leyster;
D.P. Weller, Jan Miense Molenaer. Painter of the Dutch Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, Raleigh 2002, pp. 72-4, reproduced p. 74, fig. 4.

The actual painting is a little softer in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The single panel is flat and stable and bevelled on all sides. The panel is enlarged with small strips of wood, of approx. 4 mm., on the left and right sides, probably to fit the frame. The paint is slightly thin in the black drapery, but otherwise, the paint layer is in excellent condition. Particularly the impasto and texture of the highlights in the collar have been wonderfully preserved. A few small retouchings can be observed in the black drapery, in the figure's right arm and hand. The paint surface under a dull and slightly dirty layer of varnish. Inspection under Ultra-Violet light confirms the aforesaid and reveals additional tiny scattered retouchings in the background, and some minor ones in the hat and face of the figure. Offered in a later polished wood frame with faux tortoise shell veneer inlay, in good condition. (MW)
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This painting of a young boy, smoking a pipe and holding a roemer in his hands, represents the sense of Taste and is part of a series of the Five Senses. The subject of the Five Senses was a popular one in Haarlem in the early 17th Century. Members of the Hals circle depicted the subject on numerous occasions, Molenaer being one of them. One series of his, dated 1637, remains intact and is now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.¹ In the present and earlier work, we see how Molenaer is indebted to Frans Hals and his depictions of children during the 1620s. See for example Hals' depiction of Taste in the Staatliches Museum, Schwerin ², which can be dated around 1626-8. Like Hals, Molenaer sets his figures in these paintings before neutral backdrops and depicts them at half-length.

The series this work once belonged to was dispersed during the second quarter of the 20th Century. Before that, all Five Senses belonged to Arthur Kay, in whose collection they were regarded as works by Judith Leyster (see Provenance and Literature). Three of them, Hearing, Smell and Touch were only recently brought together temporarily in the exhibition on Molenaer in 2002, held in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.³ At the time of the publication of the exhibition catalogue in 2002, the consensus was that the three exhibited senses were autograph works by Molenaer, dating from his early years, the late 1620s. The representation of Sight and the present lot, both not included in the exhibition, were regarded as standing somewhat apart from the rest of the group. Sight, being the most painterly example of the group, carried an understandable attribution to Judith Leyster in a recent sale ⁴ and Taste being regarded as the most sophisticated one, because of its brushwork and its overall higher quality. The question was therefore raised whether the series once belonging to Kay, was actually always intended as a set, or that maybe different combinations of different series were made. Dr. Weller, at the time unable to inspect the original, thought the higher quality of Taste could be due to the condition or the growing maturity as a painter and stressed that further examination of the genesis of this series was needed. It is true that compared with the rest of the series formerly in Kay's collection, the present lot stands out due to its finer details and that the series as a whole is no longer coherent. On the basis of recent photographs Weller believes the present work can be regarded as an autograph work by Molenaer and is an example of his increased maturity. It might have belonged to a different series of the Five Senses, hitherto unknown.

1. See Weller under Literature, pp. 142-7, cat. no. 26. This series is dated 1637 and instead of young children, depicts more genre-like scenes with peasants.
2. Frans Hals, Taste, oil on panel, circular, 15 inch diameter, Staatliches Museum, Schwerin, see Weller, op. cit. p. 72, fig. 1.
3. idem, pp. 69-74, cat. no. 3.
4. Sold, New York, Sotheby's, 11 April 1991, lot 183, as attributed to Judith Leyster.