Pieter Codde

Max Weil, Düsseldorf (confiscated by the National Socialists before 1939);
Finanzamt Düsseldorf;
Sale, Düsseldorf, Eugen Pongs, 23 March 1939, lot 17, detailed 'nicht arischer Besitz' (as Thomas de Keyser);
Acquired at the above sale by the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn (inv. no. 20897);
Restituted to Max Weil on the 23 August 1950;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), London, Christie's, 22 April 1994, lot 5, for £90,000 (as Anthonie Palamedesz.);
With Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris, in November 1994 (as Anthonie Palamedesz.).

Weltkunst, vol. XIII, no. 9, 5 March 1939, reproduced p. 6, in an advertisement for Carl Eugen Pongs auction house (as Thomas de Keyser);
De Jonckheere, Tableaux de maitres flamands et hollandais des XVI^e et XVII^e siècles: Catalogue for the Biennale des Antiquaires, Paris 1994, cat. no. 47, reproduced, and also on the front cover (as Anthonie Palamedesz.);
F. Laarmann, Families in beeld. De ontwikkeling van het Noord-Nederlandse familieportret in de eerste helft van de zecventiende eeuw, Hilversum 2002, pp. 68–69, p. 84, cat. no. B 15, reproduced p. 69, fig. 25 (as Anthonie Palamedesz.).

The colours are rather brighter and warmer than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel has been cradled and this is providing good stable support. There is an old panel join running across at the level of the top of the painting on the far wall. There are two shorter splits of 10 cm and 6 cm running in from the left hand edge just above the heads of the figures and at shoulder level respectively. The painting has fairly recently been cleaned and restored and the paint surface appears in good overall condition. No major damages or repairs are visible under ultra violet light; the largest repairs being to be the right half of the foremost seated man's hat, and to the centre of the costume of the young boy on the left, and again around his shoe. There are two diagonal repaired 4 cm scratches in the background upper left. Other restoration is mostly of local and minor nature, chiefly concerned with retouchings in the background upper margin, reinforcing the shadows in the drapery in the stead foreground figures the dog and the lady seated at the virginal. The details are well preserved throughout, as are the faces, with the exception of the young lady on the extreme left which is very worn. Numerous original pentimenti are visible, notably around the standing boy, but this is probably due to the natural transparency of the old paint rather than later abrasion. The restoration seems well carried out and the varnish is clear and even apart from scuffings along the upper margins caused by movement in the frame. Offered with a reproduction ebonised wood frame with ripple mouldings in the Dutch style in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Pieter Codde's exquisite family portrait successfully combines the formal grandeur of group portraiture with the lively interaction of a genre scene and allows the artist to fully demonstrate his technical brilliance, reveling in the depiction of texture, light and colour. The delightfully refined and harmonious composition, conceived in the tradition of Codde's musical companies, such as The Merry Company in the Akademie, Vienna¹, is enlivened by the matrix of varied attitudes and poses adopted by the sitters. The relaxed attitude of the patriarch, leaning leisurely across his chair and clasping a glass of wine, is perfectly balanced by his austere wife, sitting rigidly on her seat. The rest of the family stand formally and frieze-like across the room, with their sober but beautifully rendered garments shimmering in the light flooding in from the window at the upper left and offsetting the muted colours of their surroundings.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie for confirming the attribution to Pieter Codde, on the basis of photographs.

1. Inv. No. 1096; see R. Eigenberger, Die Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, Vienna 1927, p. 77, reproduced pl. 21.