Pieter Jacobsz. Duyfhuysen or Colinchovius

Archduchess Katalin of Austria and Bavaria (1909-2000);

Thence by descent, until anonymously sold ("Property from a Private Collection"), London, Sotheby's, 10 April 2003, lot 41A;

Where acquired by Kunshandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam;

By whom anonymously sold, London, Sotheby's, 9 December 2010, lot 134;

Where acquired by the present collector.

This is an early work, executed circa 1630, by the Rotterdam genre painter Duyfhuysen. It is the only known work that the artist signed using the Latinized form of his surname ("Colinchoviu") and differs quite markedly from his later paintings, which comprise domestic interiors populated by young women doing chores. Several interesting pentimenti, or changes, are visible, suggesting that Duyfhuysen continued to tinker with the men's costume and headdresses as the composition reached completion.