Cornelis Pietersz. Bega Haarlem 1631/2 - 1664

Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 30 June 1962, lot 2000, reproduced plate 59, fig. 1 (9,500 sfr.);
Galerie Kurt Meissner, Zurich, from whom acquired in February 1963 by the Herwegs for 7,500 SFr.

While Cornelis Bega often borrowed figure designs from Adriaen van Ostade, with whom he studied before 1653, and other artists (the sick woman to the right of the present painting is probably lifted from Adriaen Brouwer's Inn with drunken peasants, The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. no. 847) his works do take on their own identity, with figures often recuring throughout his painted oeuvre; as Mary-Ann Scott notes in her monograph (see under Literature), the woman holding a basket on her head recurs in the signed picture of A quack pulling a boor's teeth (offered for sale in Copenhagen, Winkel and Magnussens, 3 November 1938, lot 11), while the foremost male and female figures relate to the etchings Man with his hand in his coat (M.-A. Scott, op. cit., p. 441, no. B.10) and Woman carrying a basket (ibid., p.441, no. B.18).  Scott dates the present work to circa 1654-58.

Sold with the certificate of Dr. Walther Bernt, dated 24 February 1961, in which he dates the painting to Bega's late years and compares it to Walking Musicians in Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (no. 14).