- 99
Pieter Bout Brussels 1658(?) - 1719
Description
- Pieter Bout
- recto: a horse and cart and other travellers, stopping to rest by an inn;verso: study of a family with a small child learning to walk
- signed in brown ink, lower right: p.bout
- pen and black ink and grey wash, over black chalk, within black ink framing lines (recto);
pen and black ink and point of the brush and grey wash (verso)
Provenance
Pieter Langerhuizen (L.2095, on old backing sheet, attached to mount);
Ant. W.M. Mensing, his sale, Amsterdam, Mensing, 27-29 April 1937, lot 89;
Ernst Jürgen Otto (L.873b, on old backing sheet, attached to mount)
Catalogue Note
For an artist who has left a significant number of works, the uncertainty regarding the details of Bout's life are surprising. Various sources cite birth dates ranging from 1620 to 1658, and dates of death between 1689 and 1718. What is clear is that Bout was based in Brussels, and occasionally collaborated with Adriaen Frans Boudewijns, Lucas Achtschellinks and Jacques d'Arthois, contributing figures to the landscapes of these painters. Some of Bout's drawings - including the present example - also reflect the influence of the Dutch Italianates, and Nicolaes Berchem in particular; another such example is a similarly signed river landscape with herders, in a German private collection.
Amongst the particularly good group of drawings by Bout in the British Museum, the most similar to this in handling is the depiction of a farrier's shop (see A.M. Hind, Catalogue of Drawings by Dutch and Flemish Artists...in the British Museum, vol. II, London 1923, p. 87, no. 2). A painting by the artist with a rather similar composition was sold, New York, Sotheby's, 12 January 1995, lot 135.