Jan Miense Molenaer Haarlem circa 1610 - 1668

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Description

Jan Miense Molenaer
An interior with children drinking and mischief-making
oil on canvas, in a carved and giltwood frame

Provenance

Quentell collection, Bremen;
His sale, Cologne, Heberle, 16-19 December 1885, lot 64 (as by Frans Hals II);
Galerie Schäffer, Berlin, 1929;
A.S. Drey, his sale, Berlin, Graupe, 17-18 June 1936, lot 34;
American Private Collection by 1959;
Art Market, New York, 1959;
Art Market, London, 1959;
Purchased by the father of the present owner in London, November 1959;
Thence by descent.
The lot is offered under a settlement agreement between the current possessor of the painting and the heirs of A.S. Drey of Munich. The settlement agreement resolves the dispute over ownership of this painting and full title to the painting will pass to the successful bidder.

Exhibited

Berlin, Galerie Schäffer, Die Meister des Holländischen Interieurs, April - May 1929, no. 59.

Literature

C. von Bogendorf Rupprath, in Jan Miense Molenaer, Painter of the Dutch Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, 13 October 2002 - 5 January 2003, p. 33, reproduced fig. 7, as circa 1628-30 (as present whereabouts unknown).

Catalogue Note

This is a work from the artist’s early years, probably dating from before he was admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1634. The lively colouring and entertaining, mischievous nature of the present work are typical of Molenaer’s youth. Particularly notable are the hats worn by the children; that of the right hand figure sports a spoon, a candle and a candle-snuffer. There are a number of other works of the same period with children wearing similarly humorous headdresses; see, for example, A smiling youth, pointing, formerly London, Trafalgar Galleries, 1978 (see exhibition catalogue, under Literature, p. 33, fig. 6). The girl on the left of the composition appears to have been one of Molenaer's favourite models and recurs in several works of this date, for example the Girl with a flute, now in a Canadian private collection (ibid., p. 35, fig. 11).

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Molenaer and for suggesting that it is fully characteristic of the artist's work circa 1630.