Circle of Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

H.J. Vieyra, Amsterdam, by 1953;
Private collection, Amsterdam.

P.J.J. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem 1562-1638, Doornspijk 1999, p. 175, note 83.

The actual painting is brighter, but warmer in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel consists of 3 planks, joined horizontally, and is bevelled on the upper and right sides, and slightly bevelled on the left side. The panel has been reinforced with 7 battons along each joint. No damages seem to be apparent. The paint surface has grown a bit thin throughout, particularly in the brown tones, but otherwise the paint surface seems to be in good condition. There's minor frame abrasion along the upper and lower edges. A few discoloured retouchings can be observed in the sky just above the figures, in the green dress, in the foliage and in the ground below the group of trees to the right. The paint surface is under an uneven, slightly dirty and glossy layer of varnish. Inspection under ultra violet light furthermore reveals tiny scattered retouchings throughout, e.g. in the face of the woman, bending over the child, along the joints, in the clothes of the women most right, and in the bare figure, and in the water in the foreground. Offered in a plain black wood frame with a few losses, but otherwise in good condition. (MW)
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According to Van Thiel this work is a version of a painting done by the studio of Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, which is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Liège (inv. no. 1135). It differs from the Liège picture in that it is shortened to the right edge and extended at the top.¹ Although both pictures fit well into the group of paintings done by Cornelisz. van Haarlem's pupils in the 1590s, the date of 1608 on the present painting, sets both pictures to be created at the end of the first decade of the 17^th Century (see Literature).

1.See Literature, p. 176, reproduced fig. 77.