Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne Delft 1589 - 1662 The Hague

As in most of his other grisailles, Van der Venne shows in the present and following lot his predilection for the depiction of poverty, misery and human foible in a caricatural form ideally suited to the proverbs from which he took his titles.  Although not a pair, both this and the following lot are inscribed with the text Dartel Arm, which is a wordplay. The word Dartel can mean jumping as well as foolish, and thus can be applied in different scenes, as here. Obviously the scenes depicted in his grisailles represent no real events. It is plausible though that the figures depicted come from direct observation. In the inventory of his estate 50 to 60 sketchbooks are found, ‘being only pranks’ (Vijftigh a sestigh boekjes, synde maer grolletjes; see: A. Bredius, Künstler-inventare…, vol. 2, 1920 The Hague, p. 376).

Both grisailles may be a pair (see Provenance) and are painted around the same time, somewhere in the 1630’s, when Van der Venne was living in The Hague. He resided until his death in a house named ‘In de drie Leer-konsten’, on the south side of the Turfmarkt, where there was also his painting studio and a bookshop from which Van der Venne sold volumes of his own poetry.