Delft School, 1654

In the family of the present owners since at least the last quarter of the 19th Century.

The actual painting s softer and less red in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The canvas has a stable relining (wax). The vertical canvas seem can be seen running through the middle. No major damages are apparent. A few small retouched paint losses are visible in the upper left corner, left of the girl standing of on the left, and in the right girl's sleeve and in both aprons. A few additional scattered discoloured retouchings can be observed, e.g. in the lower foreground and left background, in the bucket and in the foliage. Otherwise, the paint layer is wonderfully preserved with its subtle details intact, particularly in the lace. The paint surface is under a slightly discoloured layer of varnish and there's some surface dirt. Inspection under Ultra-Violet light confirms the abovementioned retouchings and reveals a few very tiny ones in the faces. Offered in an elaborately carved plaster and wood frame, with a few losses. (MW)
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For a long time these two lovely 4 year old twin girls were thought to come from the northern part of Holland. Artists such as Jan Albertsz. Rotius (1624-1666) from Hoorn and Jan Jansz. de Stomme (1615-1657) from Groningen have been connected with this picture before, but neither attribution has ever seemed convincing. Although both artists were known for their portrayals of children, often depicted in similar dress as the girls here, stylistically the gap between their works and the present painting remains too large. After inspection of the original, Prof. Dr. R.E.O. Ekkart has kindly suggested that the painter of these two girls did not come from the north of Holland, but rather from the region of Delft, as this painting comes closest to a pair representing a young boy and girl, now attributed to the Delft artist Willem Jansz. Ploy (active 1655-75) in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. nos. A807/9).¹ The boy in the Rijksmuseum painting carries a similar cluster of grapes as the girl to the right here and shares with the present painting a rather soft rendering of fabrics, unlike the stiff aprons typically found in the paintings of de Stomme.  Further similarities in the children's faces and the rendering of the lace, as well as an outdoor setting similar to that used by Ploy, suggests that an origin for this work in Delft is highly plausible. However, even with Delft as a specific region in which to place these girls, and the certain fact that they were born on 7 and 8 October, in the years 1649/50, the identities of these beautiful little girls remain tantalisingly elusive.

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. R.E.O. Ekkart for his help in cataloguing this lot.

1. See P.J.J.  van Thiel, All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, First Supplement: 1976-91, Amsterdam/The Hague 1992, p. 74.